AFP-BIFF firefight in NorCot town traps teachers and students in public school

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 23): AFP-BIFF firefight in NorCot town traps teachers and students in public school
 
Fresh clashes between government troopers and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) erupted around 9 a.m. Monday in remote Barangay Malingao, Midsayap, North Cotabato, trapping teachers and students of a public school in the area.

Initial reports said members of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion are initiating efforts to free the teachers and students inside the Malingao Elementary School from their present situation.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, Army’s Sixth Infantry Division spokesman, assured relatives of the trapped individuals that military troops in the area are doing their best to protect the school from the attacking rebels.

“Our forces are fending off the BIFF from entering the village as the ongoing firefight is at the periphery of Malingao. It is still unsafe as of this time to extract the people at the school because stray bullets might hit them,” Hermoso explained.

He said military troopers have engaged BIFF forces since dawn in the villages of Raradangan and Tugal in Midsayap, which spilled over to Malingao.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=568531