Liguasan communities, Army forge alliance against BIFF

WETLAND --- An aerial shot of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh situated in the boundaries of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, and North Cotabato provinces in Central Mindanao. (Photo courtesy of DENR-12) Liguasan communities, Army forge alliance against BIFF

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao --- The military and communities around the vast Liguasan Marsh in Maguindanao have forged an alliance to fight abuses brought by the IS-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the area. CLICK HERE TO RERAD MORE......

Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, said local residents who catch mudfish and catfish in the marshland were denied by the BIFF of livelihood, prompting villagers to pinpoint the terrorists’ location to the military.

“The communities were obviously angered by BIFF armed men preventing freshwater fishermen to catch fish in the marshland that led them to cooperate with us,” Cabunoc told reporters here last June 15.

He said the BIFF has made life difficult for fishermen the past several years and got fed up, encouraging them to report the location of a bomb-making factory of the BIFF in the border of Pagalungan and Gen. Salipada K. Pendatun towns.

Military airstrikes and artillery fire destroyed the BIFF’s bomb-making facility during a bomb run earlier last week that also resulted to the killing of 15 BIFF elements including five Indonesians and a Singaporean.

The Army’s “surgical” operation also resulted to the capture of a couple allegedly involved in bomb-making.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, said eight other BIFF were killed in succeeding clashes in Datu Unsay and Datu Hofer towns, also in Maguindanao and in Midsayap, North Cotabato.

Despite evacuation that took place in some areas, settlers along Liguasan Marsh have expressed joy that the BIFF is gone in the vicinity of the wetland.

“There were Indong-Indong (Indonesians) armed men and they don’t want us to fish near their camp,” said fresh water fisherman Jamadel, 40 of Barangay Midpandacan, Gen. SK Pendatun in  Maguindanaon dialect.

Cabunoc said Army ground troops, cruising on motorized bancas, continue to hunt down BIFF remnants in the 220,000-hectare marshland situated in the boundaries of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

“Our orders are to finish the BIFF for good,” he said. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA – Cotabato/MINDANAO EXPOSE’)