Police blames BIFF in Maguindanao clash; displaced families get aid

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 27): Police blames BIFF in Maguindanao clash; displaced families get aid

Police authorities in Maguindanao on Friday blamed the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) for the armed hostilities during the supposedly peaceful serving of search warrants against Ampatuan Mayor Rasul Sangki in a remote village here Thursday dawn.

Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao's provincial police director, said the armed hostilities in Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan, Maguindanao sparked fierce firefight that left four suspected BIFF fighters killed and seven soldiers injured.

Police and the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion were helping the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (CIDG-ARMM) in locating Mayor Sangki, one of the local executives publicly named by President Duterte as among the narcopoliticians in Maguindanao.

Sangki vehemently denied he was a drug lord and offered to be investigated to clear his name.

Tello said the BIFF, belonging to Kagi Karialan faction, ambushed government forces as they entered the village. Karialan’s group admitted they fired at the approaching lawmen but denied they suffered four fatalities.

Speaking for Maguindanao PNP, Senior Insp. Rasul Pandulo said police and military forces have put up blocking force as military manhunt operations continue Friday.

Both Tello and the CIDG could not say whether Mayor Sangki, now a fugitive, was with the group or not.

Barangay Saniag is about five kilometers east of Barangay Salman, site of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Tello said another hostilities ensued in the village of Salman when followers of Sangki, armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, opened fire on government forces who tried to encircle their hideout to serve him a warrant of arrest.

Tello named the wounded infantrymen as Sgt. Remulta, Cpl. Raffy Matingkal, and Privates Eldie Mallorca, Erwin Mistoso, Alden Cahoy, Harold John Dionisio, and Jerusel Castaneda.

About 50 families belonging to Teduray tribe fled toward the Poblacion gymnasium Thursday morning.

The displaced families have already received relief assistance from ARMM Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (HEART), according to Myrna Jo Henry, HEART spokesperson.

She said the region’s relief organization also put up a community kitchen where the internally displaced persons can cook food.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=958686