It looks connected to the peace 'spoilers' Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters based on the signature of the improvised explosive device, says a military official
BOMBING.
Authorities inspect the site where an improvised explosive device was planted
in General Santos
The military has tagged the Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters (BIFF) – a splinter
group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – as behind the bombing in General Santos that wounded 7 civilians Tuesday evening, September
16.
Military officials made the assessment on Wednesday, September 17, the same
day Chief Peace Adviser Teresita Deles told senators at a budget hearing that
the estimated 1,000 BIFF members are "well contained," citing
successful military operations that captured the rebels' camps in Maguindanao.
"Based on the signature of the improvised explosive device (IED), it
looks connected to the spoilers BIFF. This is the group of Basit Usman, who is
also known for extortion activities," said Major General Eduardo Año,
commander of the 10th Infantry Division of the Eastern
Mindanao Command.
When the MILF
abandoned its armed stuggle for independence in exchange for widers powers for
the new Bangsamoro entity, disgruntled members left the group and formed the
BIFF to continue the fight. Usman is
supposedly a former member of the MILF special operations group, according to
Año.
Año, the former military intelligence chief, believes that the attack is
meant to "make their presence felt" while the government and the MILF
are working on the creation of a new autonomous region in Mindanao
The Bangsamoro
draft law is now pending Congress deliberations.
But Año is not discounting extortion as the motive behind the attack and
that Usman may be delivering a "fair warning" to their victims.
He said the attack was not meant to inflict maximum damage. The bomb was
placed in the monument of national hero Jose Rizal, which is populated at day
time but not at night, and exploded before 8 pm on Tuesday.
Año said it should be treated as "isolated incident" because no
similar incidents have been reported in General Santos for a long time.
He also said that the incident does mean that the BIFF now has a presence
in General Santos, as the city is supposedly only a transit area.
Concerns
over BIFF
At the Senate
hearing on the budget of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace
Process (OPAPP), Senator Francis
Escudero expressed concerns about the BIFF emerging as the new MILF, referring
to the split of the MILF from the MNLF following the latter's peace agreeement
with the government in 1996.
Until it pursued
a peace process in earnest with the government, the MILF pursued an armed
stuggle that would eclipse the MNLF to become the dominant Muslim group. (READ:
Real peace means the guns will have to go
away)
"They (BIFF)
might graduate, elevate and mature to becoming either the MILF or the MNLF. At
some point down the road, you might not even be in government anymore, the next
government or the next next government will be faced with negotiations with
them for another basic law," said Escudero.
But Deles is not
worried. She noted that the military has taken several BIFF camps and the
residents in the communities are supportive of the peace process.
Deles said the
new peace agreement has learned the lessons of the "failed" ARMM. The
separation of powers of between the central government and the new Bangsamoro
entity in terms of fiscal autonomy, justice, and other issues are better
defined, she said.
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