Cops help repair Datu Piang church damaged by BIFF attack

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 9, 2020): Cops help repair Datu Piang church damaged by BIFF attack (By Edwin Fernandez)

COMMUNITY SERVICE. Policemen in Datu Piang, Maguindanao helped repair and clean the Sta. Teresita parish church on Wednesday (Dec. 9, 2020) after it sustained bullet holes during the BIFF terror attack on Dec. 3. Fr. Prudencio Alviar, OMI, (inset, center in white shirt) the parish priest, who is celebrating his 63rd birthday on the same day, said his “well-wishers” were the police officers who helped him restore the place of worship. (Photo courtesy of PRO-BARMM)

DATU PIANG, Maguindanao – Local police here on Wednesday helped the parish priest renovate the Catholic church hit by stray bullets during a terror attack last week.

Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez, police director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said members of the Datu Piang municipal police, backed by the Police Special Action Force (SAF), helped Fr. Prudencio Alviar, parish priest of Sta. Teresita Church, repair the damaged glass windows and clean the parish compound.

Fr. Alviar was elated with the gesture, especially since he was celebrating his 63rd birthday. He called the policemen his “special guests” and human resources in restoring the partly-damaged church.

“Help the people of Datu Piang, help places of worship, and make everyone feel they are safe,” Rodriguez told the Datu Piang police, now under Major Alexander Butuan, the new town police chief.

About 50 gunmen of the extremist Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked the town center shortly before midnight on Dec. 3, trading shots with lawmen and setting a police car on fire.

Police and military authorities said the BIFF had also plotted to set ablaze the parish church and the Church-run Notre Dame of Dulawan high school in the area.

But the plot was foiled when police officers and soldiers engaged the BIFF in a 15-minute firefight until reinforcement came forcing the rebels to withdraw.

The Sta. Teresita Church bore several bullet holes in its glass windows, and in the statue of the patron saint.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1124226