Five days earlier, Gapuz told government troops during the 7th Infantry Battalion’s 40th anniversary celebration in Pikit,
“It is our mandate to serve and protect the people and maintain peace and security,” Gapuz recalled, reminding the officers and men of 7th IB.
On Saturday, five infantry men, three from the 68th Infantry Battalion and two from the 7th Infantry Battalion, were killed in separate attacks by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in efforts to derail the government peace process with the MILF.
"We are saddened by their deaths but it is with pride and honor that 6ID mourns the deaths of our fallen officer and men, for they did not die in vain, they bravely put their lives in the line of fire to protect and secure our civilian communities while observing the primacy of the ongoing GPH-MILF peace process," Gapuz said.
Gapuz's marching orders during the 7th IB anniversary was put immediately to test after BIFF bandits first attacked Saturday soldiers in Barangay Paidu Pulangi in Pikit, North Cotabato, killing Privates First Class Megan Bello and Jonathan Mores,from the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion.
While 7th IB infantry men were battling the BIFF attackers who positioned in Barangay Regente, Datu Piang, Maguindanao across the Rio Grande de Mindanao, another band of BIFF rebels set off a powerful roadside bomb in Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao, 1st Lt. Gerardo Flores and his two soldiers.
Flores and his slain men died from multiple shrapnel wounds.
Responding soldiers and militiamen engaged the bandits that waylaid Flores and his men in a two-hour long running firefight, leaving eight BIFF fighters dead and seven others wounded.
Another group of BIFF gunmen also attacked on Saturday pursuing elements of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion and 45th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Bakat, Shariff Saydona Mustapha town also in Maguindanao, provoking a two-hour firefight resulting to numerous and unaccounted BIFF casualties.
Quoting village officials in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town, Colonel Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the 6th ID, said about 18 BIFF fighters were killed.
The PNP PRO-ARMM and 6th Infantry Division in coordination with the GPH and MILF Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) was prompted to launched a joint law enforcement pursuit operation against the BIFF in the boundary of Maguindanao and North Cotabato in response to BIFF's wanton attacks to civilian communities and military detachments causing major displacements including Moro communities who are about to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan early this week.
Last week, unruly BIFF bandits killed a member of the CAFGU and a farmer in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat, where they also tried, but failed to take over an Army detachment of the 33rd Infantry Battalion before escaping towards a marshy area near Maguindanao’s General Salipada K. Pendatun town, bringing with them more than a dozen water buffaloes they took from farmers at gunpoint.
The BIFF had also earlier set-off improvised explosives in Shariff Aguak, also in Maguindanao that left to soldiers and a civilian wounded.
They also fired rockets and assault rifles on two detachments of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion in Midsayap,
Gapuz said the BIFF also attacked civilians like the strafing of
"As we honor our fallen heroes, we will continue our punitive action against BIFF who we now consider as terrorists who disregard even their relatives who are preparing for the fasting month," Gapuz said.
The Maguindanao social welfare office said about 5,000 individuals have fled their homes in at least three towns after sighting BIFF forces in their communities.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=541802
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