Major General Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the 6th
Infantry Division on Sunday led division officers and men in according heroic
military honors to the fallen soldiers who perished in a harassment by
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the borders of Maguindanao and
Sultan Kudarat.
Corporal Daniel T. Valenzuela III and PFC Karl Bernie D.
Arriba died after about 50 heavily armed BIFF harassed the detachment of the
33rd Infantry Battalion on Saturday morning in Barangay Katiko, President
Quirino, Sultan Kudarat.
On the same day, the BIFF attacked another Army base in
Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Capt. Joanne Petinglay, spokesperson of the 6th ID, said the
family of the soldiers received posthumous awards for heroes during the
ceremony.
Pangilinan assured the family that all forms of assistance
will be extended to them and that benefits that are due them will be
immediately processed.
The remains of Villanueva and Arriba were transported to
their respective towns in San Isidro Lagao, General Santos
City
Petinglay said in early December last year, the terrorist
group BIFF had openly pronounced to conduct atrocities in order to disrupt the
Yuletide celebration of the soldiers.
She said the BIFF was responsible in harassing a military
detachment in Guindulungan, Maguindanao hours before Christmas Eve.
Despite the incidents, Petinglay said the whole area of
operation of the command remained to be generally peaceful and that 6ID will be
supporting law enforcement operation to go after the said group in order to
preempt their terror plans.
The BIFF is a ragtag former member of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) which broke away from the revolutionary movement in
2008 to push its desire for independent Islamic State in Mindanao .
In 2014, the military neutralized 19 BIFF members, 17 of
them were killed, in several skirmishes and two were arrested and charged for
various crimes.
Petinglay said the military in Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat continue to be on alert
to thwart any attempt by lawless elements to sow terror even as she urged the
public to help authorities prevent crimes.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=721682
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