CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao -- The Army's 6th
Infantry Division has started covert operations against outlawed Bangsamoro
Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a regional Army spokesperson said Wednesday.
Capt. Joann Petinglay, speaking for the 6th Infantry
Division, said the directive of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of
Staff Gregorio Catapang was clear.
"We appeal to the civilian populace in areas where the
BIFF operates to help the military neutralize this terrorist group,"
Petinglay said in a radio interview.
Catapang earlier directed Western Mindanao Command chief Lt.
Gen. Rustico Guerrero to spearhead the "all-out war" against the BIFF
which mostly operates in Maguindanao and North Cotabato .
"We are ready to use the military might,"
Petinglay said.
The BIFF is composed of about 1,000 armed men who are former
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels that broke away in 2008 to push for
independence in Southern Philippines .
Headed by Ameril Umbra Kato, former head of MILF's 108th
base command, the group resorted to bombings, extortion and forced taxation
against civilian targets in Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Cotabato City
It recently figured in a clash with MILF forces in the
borders of Maguindanao and North Cotabato and
occupied at least 10 outskirt villages that forced the dislocation of about
20,000 civilians.
The MILF, through the joint ceasefire committees of the
government and the MILF, sought military assistance in flushing out the BIFF.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Army's 7th Infantry Battalion
launched artillery attacks against the BIFF, forcing them to abandon occupied
communities and fled deep into the Maguindanao marshland.
The civilians have slowly returned home to their communities.
Petinglay said the Army will not allow the BIFF to sow
terror among civilian communities and non-military targets through its
expertise - setting off improvised bombs.
Its spokesperson Abu Misri Mama said his group was not
afraid of the Army's "all-out war," saying the BIFF will fight to the
last drop of their blood.
"We will continue our guerilla warfare, we will not
face the Army head on, it is very strong, but through guerilla offensive, we
will defeat them," Mama said as if taunting the government forces.
Petinglay said the BIFF actually started getting back at
government forces when it ambushed elements of the 1st Mechanized Infantry
Brigade in Datu Anggal, Maguindanao while the Army was pounding the village of
Kabasalan, Pikit, North Cotabato with 105 howitzers.
"We are prepared, they will always conduct diversionary
offensives whenever the Army is hunting them down," she said.
In that operation, the Army recovered high powered firearms
abandoned by the BIFF after a brief firefight that included two M-16 Armalite
rifles, 12 gauge shotgun, a home-made Ingramm sub-machine gun and assorted
ammunition, Petinglay said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=739065
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