5 BIFF members slain in Maguindanao clash

From the Philippine News Agency (May 12, 2021): 5 BIFF members slain in Maguindanao clash (By Edwin Fernandez)

BIFF CASUALTIES. Police and hospital workers unload the remains of five slain BIFF members at Buluan District Hospital in Buluan, Maguindanao following an encounter in Barangay Digal of the municipality Tuesday evening (May 11, 2021). The slain gunmen were part of the larger BIFF Karialan faction that clashed with military troopers in Datu Paglas town after entering its market center on May 8, 2021, authorities say. (Photo courtesy of Max FM-Tacurong)

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – Ongoing pursuit operations in the province against Islamic State-linked gunmen led to the neutralization of five members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Buluan town, police and military authorities said Wednesday.

Lt. Cemafranco Cemacio, Buluan police chief, said the five BIFF combatants were slain in a clash with the military on Tuesday night in Sitio Linek, Barangay Digal of Buluan.

Initial investigation showed that about 40 BIFF members were seen passing by Sitio Linek at about 11 p.m. A brief encounter ensued, leaving five BIFF dead, Cemacio said.

“They were seen planting improvised bombs so a firefight erupted after they were sighted by elements of the 90th Infantry Battalion (90IB),” Cemacio said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, said the slain BIFF were part of a group of gunmen who occupied the town public market of Buluan, Maguindanao on May 8.

“The BIFF faction in Datu Paglas had splintered to small groups but 90IB troopers chanced upon them in Digal village,” Galido said in a separate interview here.

Soldiers under the Army's 601st Infantry Brigade were deployed in the village of Digal, Buluan, Maguindanao, as a blocking force following the May 8 atrocities in Datu Paglas.

Galido said the bodies of the slain extremists were turned over to the police in Buluan.

The clash occurred barely a day after President Rodrigo Duterte urged local officials to help him find a solution to put an end to the terrorism being pursued by the BIFF.

Duterte, in a visit at the Army’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters on Tuesday, said he would give local officials enough time to help him solve the problem of violence in Maguindanao and the entire Bangsamoro Region through peaceful means.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1140028