4 soldiers killed in Maguindanao del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Four soldiers were killed in an ambush on Sunday morning by Dawlah Islamiya gunmen in Barangay Tuayan in Datu Hofer town in Maguindanao del Sur.

The Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, in a report on Sunday afternoon to Brig Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, stated that the four slain soldiers belonged to the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Nobleza and officials of 6th ID, whose commander is Major Gen. Alex Rillera, identified the slain soldiers as Privates Marvin Dumaguing and Jessie James Corpuz, Private 1st Class Carl Araña and Cpl. Creszaldy Espertero.

The slain soldiers and their companions were together in a vehicle, on their way to their company command post, when terrorists armed with M16 and M14 assault rifles, positioned along the road in Barangay Tuayan, opened fire as they came close.

The victims, who sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies, were brought to the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital, also in Datu Hoffer, by responding members of the 40th IB and personnel of the Datu Hoffer Municipal Police Station, but were declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.

The Dawlah Islamiya, an ally of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, perpetrated the deadly attack on the 6th Day of the Ramadhan season, where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle, or about 29 to 30 days, as a religious obligation, a form sacrifice and reparation for wrongdoings.

Neither of the two terrorist groups is a party to the peace overtures among the national government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front, which are together managing the now five-year Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a product of 22 years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF.  

The Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF, whose leaders are known violent religious extremists and are wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts, have a reputation for fomenting hatred for non-Muslims and for bombing buses and business establishments if owners refuse to shell out “protection money” on periodic basis.

The group responsible for the deadly ambush in Barangay Tuayan immediately scampered away when they sensed that Army and police reinforcements were closing in.

Soldiers had killed 11 members of the Dawlah Islamiya in an encounter in an upland area in Barangay Tuayan in November 2023.

The 11 Dawlah Islamiya fatalities were carrying powerful improvised explosive devices, en route to somewhere, when they were intercepted by soldiers, acting on tips by vigilant Moro residents aware of their plot to bomb targets along the Cotabato-Esperanza Highway that straddles through a number of towns in Maguindanao del Sur.