Army hot on trail of BIFF in Maguindanao, North Cotabato borders

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 27): Army hot on trail of BIFF in Maguindanao, North Cotabato borders

Government forces are hunting down a band of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) facing multiple charges of extortion, kidnapping and bombings, an Army official said Monday.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the regional Army unit based in Maguindanao, said combined police and military troops from the Army's 7th, 40th, 46th 45th Infantry Battalions are running after about 20 BIFF who were charged with criminal offenses that involved kidnapping of teachers, bombings, murders and frustrated murders.

"These lawless elements with warrants of arrest were hiding in the marshland in the borders of North Cotabato and Maguindanao," Hermoso said.

The military's surgical operations are being conducted in the adjoining towns of Shariff Saydona, Datu Piang, and Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao and Pikit in North Cotabato.

Two MG-520 attack helicopters, armored personnel carriers and 105 howitzers have been helping the military operations.

Hermoso explained that the offensive was done in coordination with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which signed the final annex of the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement.

He said that the police was in possession of several warrants of arrest for the BIFF which could fill up a passenger jeepney.

Police and military authorities in the towns surrounding the marshland were also placed on heightened alert to prevent the BIFF from setting off improvised bombs to divert military action.

Traditionally, when the military launched punitive action against lawless elements in the Maguindanao marshland, the rebels would set off IEDs in the towns of Midsayap, Kabacan, M'lang, Tulunan and Tacurong City, Isulan, Shariff Aguak, as part of the rebels' diversionary tactics, Hermoso said.

"We anticipate this BIFF strategies so we placed our troops on alert," he told reporters.

While Hermoso was saying the Army is ready, it appealed to the BIFF not to harass civilian communities because it will displace people who are mostly Moro and affect the region's economy.

Already, close to a 200 families from interior villages of Pikit, North Cotabato have fled their homes following sightings of BIFF forces and the mortar shelling carried by the Army in the marshland.

The local government unit is now attending to their immediate needs.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=609932