BIFF hits anew as talks go sour

From the Daily Tribune (Jul 14): BIFF hits anew as talks go sour

KL NEGOTIATIONS ‘STRUGGLING’ — MILF

The renegade faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front stepped up its offensive yesterday which appeared coordinated with the souring of the MILF panel’s outlook on the results of the current negotiations in Kuala Lumpur on the setting up of a Bangsamoro substate.

Fresh fighting between Philippine troops and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a supposed renegade group of the MILF, left seven people dead, the military said.

The gunmen ambushed an army truck in Maguindanao, regional military spokesman Col. Dickson Hermoso said.

Two soldiers were wounded in the initial volley, but the army gave chase to the retreating gunmen and killed five of them, he said in a written report.

The pursuit also left two soldiers dead and four other soldiers wounded, Hermoso added.

The negotiations between the MILF and the government remained deadlocked yesterday over the wealth sharing annex of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB).

Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told newsmen at the end of yesterday’s phase of negotiations that both panels are struggling to move forward from the deadlock and commented that the negotiators are “hoping against hope” to find a resolution.

The current round of negotiations have been extended twice already hoping for a breahthrough to end the impasse.

Iqbal said the MILF had already agreed on several compromises regarding the wealth sharing annex but the “core principle on land resources” remained a sticky issue.

The BIFF had mounted attacks on Mindanao lastr July 6, two days before the government resumed peace talks with the MILF.

The breakaway group was formed shortly after a similar agreement signed during the previous administration was scuttled by the Supreme Court which ruled that the pact called memorandum of understanding on ancestral domain (MoA-AD) violates the Constitution.The Earlier fighting had left five soldiers and three gunmen dead and sparked fears that it would affect the peace talks.

The breakaway MILF group went on a rampage torching houses and killing civilians on mostly regions that would have been covered by a juridical entity that the SC struck down.

The military however ended its pursuit of the renegade rebel force before the talks resumed in Malaysia last Monday.

The peace talks aim to create an autonomous region for the Muslim minority in Mindanao, the southern third of the mainly Catholic nation of 100 million.

The two sides signed a preliminary deal in October outlining the broad terms for a peace treaty that would be signed by 2016.

The Kuala Lumpur talks aim to spell out revenue-sharing terms with the national government in the self-rule area.

The talks were continuing on Saturday, President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte said in an interview on government radio.

The 12,000-member MILF has waged a guerrilla war for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao since the 1970s that has claimed an estimated 150,000 lives.

The BIFF is led by Ameril Umbrakato, a Saudi Arabia-trained cleric who was expelled by the MILF in 2011 for his hardline stance against the peace talks.

Military report said the ambush happened at 9:30 a.m., at Crossing Bungo, Barangay Kateman, Guindulungan town, Maguindanao province.

A 15-minute firefight took place between the government forces and the BIFF rebels. The BIFF reportedly withdrew and escaped to unknown direction.

Fighters of the BIFF also had a clash with government forces in some towns in North Cotabato and Maguindanao last July 6 that killed at least 5 soldiers.

Records showed that three soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in Shariff Saidona Mustapha town, Maguindanao at 4 p.m., on July 6 while government troopers were conducting operations against the BIFF.

Earlier on the same day, two soldiers were killed in an encounter with BIFF members in Pikit town, North Cotabato at 11 a.m.

The military claimed that the attacks staged by the BIFF aimed to derail the MILF and government peace talks that are now on going.

Allegedly, the BIFF were trying to catch attention since they were not included in the talks as they were declared by the MILF as a lawless group but some sectors suspect that the ties between the MILF and the BIFF remain strong.

The Armed Forces also claimed that BIFF usually launch attacks weeks before the Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, which is supposed to start on July 10 for this year.

It can be recalled that last October, the government and the MILF signed a landmark framework agreement that would pave the way for the creation of a Bangsamoro territory to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar earlier appealed to the BIFM to support the preliminary peace agreement with the government.

Hermoso said the wounded government troopers are now undergoing treatment at the Camp Siongco Station Hospital in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

He declined to identify the casualties pending notification of their relatives.

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