Magpet town in North Cotabato is bordered on the south by Kidapawan City and on the north by Arakan town. Google Earth
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Bandits wounded a soldier in an ambush while communist rebels abducted a barangay chairman in separate incidents in central Mindanao on Sunday.
Authorities in North Cotabato are still in pursuit of New People’s Army guerrillas who snatched Michael Lingaro, incumbent chairman of Barangay Mahongcog in Magpet town.
He was abducted by about 20 NPAs somewhere in Barangay Mahongcog at about 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Magpet municipal police office.
Lingaro is known for being a staunch supporter of police and military operations against the NPA in Magpet and nearby towns in North Cotabato.
About a hundred NPAs reportedy plundered highland villages in North Cotabato’s Antipas town, a short distance from Magpet, last month.
The two municipalities are surrounded by mountain ranges where there are NPA enclaves.
Government and National Democratic Front panels agreed in the Netherlands on April 5 on an interim ceasefire but this has yet to be formalized.
"We are pleased to learn that the document which shall pave the way to the ceasefire has been signed. Meantime that there is no ceasefire declaration yet, there will be no corresponding Suspension Of Military Operations for the moment," Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, said last Thursday.
The panels hope that the ceasefire will lead to a peaceful resolution of 48 years of fighting.
Soldier wounded in BIFF attack
Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, identified the injured soldier as Pfc Butch Albarico of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion.
Albarico, who sustained bullet wounds in the upper torso, is now in a government hospital in Shariff Aguak town, also in Maguindanao.
Tello said Albarico and companions were patrolling somewhere in Barangay Ganta in Saidona Mustapha town in the second district of Maguindanao when members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked them from two directions.
“They were ambushed while conducting a community patrol in Barangay Ganta to secure villages there on request of local officials,” Tello told The STAR on Sunday afternoon.
He said the incident caused panic among villagers residing near the scene of the ambush.
Although outnumbered, the soldiers returned fire, preventing their attackers from closing in.
The BIFF gunmen scampered away when responding soldiers from nearby roadside Army detachments arrived to help drive them away.
Barangay folk have confirmed that three fanatical BIFF bandits, initially identified only as Ahmed, Butukan and Sanguid, were wounded in the ensuing firefight.
There is heavy BIFF presence in Shariff Saidona and in Maguindanao’s nearby Mamasapano, Salibo, and Datu Saudi towns.
The apparently misguided extremist group boasts loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is using the black ISIS flag as its revolutionary banner.
It has also been coddling foreign terrorists who are experts in fabrication and handling of improvised explosive devices.
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