Tension eases in N. Cotabato town after BIFF scare

From the Manila Bulletin (Dec 31): Tension eases in N. Cotabato town after BIFF scare

M’LANG, North Cotabato – Municipal officials and the police in this town alongside the military have dismissed reports that villagers here are arming selves against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) militants, who recently figured in bloody clashes with other civilian communities elsewhere in Central Mindanao in what peace advocates lamented as “Christmas rampage.”

“No civilian residents in any part of our town are taking up arms,” M’lang Mayor Joselito Piñol and Vice Mayor Russel Abonado told reporters.

At the press conference, Supt. Joffrey Todeño, M’lang town chief of police, and provincial board member Ivy Martia Dalumpines, backed Pinol and Abonado’s statement.

Armando Tongcua, chairman of M’lang’s barangay Tibao and source of the published report about Christian civilians of his village “arming selves” against BIFF, recanted his statement to corroborate the unanimous declaration.

 

“I was just carried away by my emotion during my radio interview (On Dec. 29),” Tongcua said, citing an earlier belief that it was the BIFF that attacked his village on Dec. 26.

Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, together with officials of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over M’lang town, Mayor Piñol and police chief Todeño clarified that what transpired at Barangay Tibao last Dec. 26 was a renewed skirmish between Visayan settlers and Moro residents over a land dispute.

“No BIFF was involved in the armed skirmish” that reportedly left three Visayan settlers – Nolly Tongcua, brother of the barangay chairman; barangay tanod Sonny Catague and civilian volunteer Jomar Magarso – wounded, Mayor Pinol pointed out.

The report on the supposed arming of civilians obviously alarmed national authorities, prompting Gen. Pangilinan’s convoy including journalists to rush from Cotabato City and convene an emergency town-wide meeting here to clarify the issue.

“Let us refrain from issuing unfounded statements that would only promote confusion. There is no presence of BIFF elements in M’lang town… Unnecessary attribution of isolated incidents to the BIFF is tantamount to dignifying the outlawed bandit group,” Gen. Pangilinan told the press conference.

Gen. Pangilian labelled the BIFF militants as “demons” due to their penchant in attacking civilians in other parts of Central Mindanao.

Elements of the 6th Infantry Division and its four component brigades will set aside New Year’s celebration to pursue military offensives on BIFF remaining enclaves in Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

At Wednesday’s press conference, which he presided over, Pangilinan ordered the establishment in the afternoon of that day of a joint military-police detachment at barangay Tibao to “pacify” the Visayan settlers and Moro residents from further clashing over a long-standing land dispute.

According to Mayor Piñol, there are 10 to 20 hectares of productive land involved in the dispute, which he said began in 1996. He named the group leader of the Moro residents as a certain Ustaz Alimodin.

http://www.mb.com.ph/tension-eases-in-n-cotabato-town-after-biff-scare/