FACT CHECK Apart from BIFF, Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups remain security threats in Mindanao

 From MindaNews (Mar 21, 2022): FACT CHECK Apart from BIFF, Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups remain security threats in Mindanao (By FACT CHECK)

A recent news release by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) that only the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) is sowing mayhem in Mindanao is misleading and lacks context.

The misleading claim was contained in the report entitled “Mindanao now relatively peaceful – President Duterte.” The news release was based on President Rodrigo Duterte’s interview with fugitive Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is wanted in the United States for alleged labor and sex trafficking cases, on March 12.

The news release, issued on March 13, stated:

“We have a good rapport with the Moro of Mindanao. And I think that just allow them in the governance of our country and give them enough elbowroom to, you know, just govern without interference of armed groups,” he added, noting only the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) is sowing mayhem because of political differences.https://pcoo.gov.ph/news_releases/mindanao-now-relatively-peaceful-president-duterte/ fbclid=IwAR3NUdl0lSyHbBtBi4t6xy8EfeVd4OQnjcfdCYEc5keeqToxNI2BI2ej6Uo

The BIFF is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) founded in 2010 by the late Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, then commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces 105th Base Command who waged attacks against the military in Maguindanao and North Cotabato in 2008 after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the government and the MILF.

While the conflict between the Philippine government and the MILF had ceased with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), security threats from other Moro groups remain on the island, which the PCOO report failed to acknowledge or elaborate on.

The CAB, the final peace agreement between the government and the MILF signed in 2014 after 17 years of negotiations, provides for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which was realized in 2019 following the ratification of Republic Act 11054 or the Organic Law for the BARMM.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent global peace advocacy group, noted in its latest report for Asia, entitled “Addressing Islamist Militancy in the Southern Philippines” released on March 18, that while militant groups outside the Bangsamoro peace process are weakened, they are not yet defeated. https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/philippines/323-addressing-islamist-militancy-southern-philippines

Apart from the BIFF, the ICG pointed out the threats posed by the remnants of the Islamic State-aligned Maute Group in the Lanao provinces and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Sulu archipelago.

“While military operations have clearly weakened the militants, the armed forces have not managed to defeat them,” the ICG reported.

Combined forces of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups seized the Islamic City of Marawi in May 2017, displacing at least 350,000 civilians. Some 1,100 individuals, mostly Islamic militants, were killed during the five-month urban warfare that left the core of Marawi in rubble. The government has been rehabilitating Marawi. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1537308/dhsud-marawi-rehab-95-complete-by-june

Various media outlets recently reported some headways made by state security forces against the Maute and the Abu Sayyaf groups in the south.

On March 1, the military launched air strikes and ground assault in Maguing, Lanao del Sur that left seven members of the Maute group and a soldier killed. Government troops overran the terrorists’ lair and seized 45 high-powered firearms, including crew-served weapons, shoulder-fired rockets and bombs. https://www.philstar.com/nation/2022/03/04/2164787/terrorists-killed-lanao-del-sur-ops-rise-7

Four days later, police and military operatives arrested the wife of an Abu Sayyaf bomb expert in Jolo, Sulu. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1564793/wife-of-abu-sayyaf-bomb-maker-held-in-sulu

As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)

(This fact-check piece was produced with the support of Internews’ Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Project.)

https://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2022/03/fact-check-apart-from-biff-maute-and-abu-sayyaf-groups-remain-security-threats-in-mindanao/