Task force formed to hasten probe on ambush of Sarangani town mayor

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 3): Army, PNP on alert vs BIFF ahead of signing of GPH-MILF peace deal

Police and military authorities here have been placed on heightened alert in preparation for possible escalation of attacks by the lawless Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) with the expected signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB).

Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are optimistic the CAB, the final GPH-MILF peace accord, can be signed within the month.

Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, regional police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), on Friday has ordered component municipal and provincial police offices to closely monitor possible movements by the BIFF to sabotage the signing of the CAB.

The BIFF, a breakaway faction of the MILF, is said to be opposed to the signing of the final peace deal and vowed to push for Islamic independence in Mindanao.

On Friday, three BIFF members were killed while five others were wounded following a firefight that started with the BIFF harassing an Army base in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

Soldiers foiled the attempt by preventing the bandits from closing in by using mortars and machineguns, killing three of them.

Three soldiers belonging to the 45th Infantry Battalion were slightly wounded.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said there is a possibility the BIFF will mount more attacks as the signing of the CAB gets closer.

Hermoso said the 6th ID has deployed plainclothes agents in public terminals and markets in Central Mindanao to help the police guard against possible attacks by the BIFF to sabotage the now culminating GPH-MILF peace overture.

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