Police blame BIFF in Maguindanao for roadside bombings

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 24): Police blame BIFF in Maguindanao for roadside bombings

Police on Thursday blamed the series of roadside bombings in Maguindanao the past two days to outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Speaking to reporters, Senior Inspector Rasul Pandulo, spokesperson of Maguindanao Provincial Police Office, said the two separate road side bombing incidents in Shariff Aguak and Datu Unsay towns on Wednesday and Thursday were the handiwork of BIFF based on the recovered pieces of evidence.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, a roadside bomb was detonated about 50 meters away from a detachment of Army's Mechanized Infantry Battalion along the highway in Barangay Pagatin, Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

The bomb components used were similar to previous bomb attacks carried by the BIFF against soldiers passing the Maguindanao highways in the past.

At about 10 a.m. Thursday, a similar bomb exploded along the highway in Barangay Satan, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. Also, nobody was hurt.

Pandulo said police bomb experts recovered bomb components, broken parts of 60 mm mortar, mobile phones and cut nails in the Shariff Aguak and Datu Unsay explosions.

"It is only the BIFF that is capable of setting off road side improvised bombs in Maguindanao," Pandulo said.

He also believed that the bombings were aimed at diverting the attention of police-Army joint law enforcement operations against Mayor Montassir Sabal of Talitay, Maguindanao and his followers.

Datu Unsay and Shariff Aguak are adjacent towns of Talitay, the center of government police action.
As part of the measures to prevent similar bombing incidents in the future, police and military forces put up mobile checkpoints that are established during rush hours in the afternoon and early morning.

Colonel Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, also believed the BIFF was behind the bombings aimed at disrupting the prevailing peace and order of Maguindanao and to show it is still a force to reckon with.

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