Mindanao Armed Conflict

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao  – Unidentified gunmen believed to be Moro bandits ambushed Friday a town councilor of conflict affected town in Maguindanao, the Army today said.

“The town councilor escaped unhurt,” said Lt. Colonel Jonathan Pondanera, commander of the Army’s 57^th Infantry Battalion, of Councilor Basit Kamid.

Kamid, a member of South Upi Sangguniang Bayan and resident of Barangay Biarong, was on board his vehicle with his armed escorts when they were fired upon at 7:30 a.m. Friday near the Lamud Elementary School in Barangay Lamud, South Upi.

COTABATO CITY --- The Army’s 6^th Infantry Division mobilized more soldiers to run after the local terror group behind the burning of 13 houses and the ambush of a convoy of relief workers in South Upi, Maguindanao last week.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of 6^th ID, told reporters Wednesday the gunmen who attacked Barangay Itaw on New Year’s Eve and ambushed three days later a group of local officials and municipal relief workers on their way to the town center from the area are members of the Dawlah Islamiya.

COTABATO CITY --- The Bangsamoro government facilitated initial relief support Monday for hundreds of residents in South Upi, Maguindanao displaced by attacks by armed groups last week.

The groups behind the attacks, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, burned 13 houses in Barangay Itaw, South Upi and, subsequently, ambushed a convoy of local officials from a relief mission in the area three days later.

A villager was killed while three others, one of them a relief worker of the South Upi local government unit, were wounded in the ambush.

COTABATO CITY --- Four civilians were wounded when gunmen ambushed a convoy of relief workers from an outreach mission for conflict-stricken villagers in South Upi, Maguindanao Sunday afternoon. 

Among those hurt in the 2 p.m. attack were members of the South Upi municipal disaster risk reduction and management council, according to incumbent municipal councilors now attending to the needs of the victims. 

Three of the injured civilians were immediately rushed to a hospital here from South Upi, about 60 kilometers away. 

COTABATO CITY --- Officials again appealed on Saturday to members of the New People’s Army to return to the fold of law while there is time yet.

Local executives in central Mindanao placed at no fewer than 40 the number of NPAs killed in clashes with units of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division (6^th ID) in Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Sarangani provinces from between July to December 2019.

COTABATO CITY --- Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed seven Dawlah Islamiya gunmen who tried to attack an Army detachment in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao Tuesday.

The slain terrorists were among more than 30 gunmen on light trucks and motorcycles en route to Barangay Tuka, Mamasapano where a detachment of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion is located.

MAGUINDANAO --- Local officials in Pagalungan town turned over Monday to the 602^nd Infantry Brigade six terrorists to renounce their membership with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Pagalungan Mayor Salik Mamasabulod said Tuesday the six BIFF members yielded after learning that their companions who surrendered in recent months through the municipal peace and order council are now being reintegrated into the local communities.

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Soldiers shot dead three more New People’s Army guerillas in a series of clashes Sunday.

The encounter between combined personnel of the Army’s 5^th Special Forces Battalion and the 37^th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Datu Wasay in Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat also left four other NPAs wounded.

COTABATO CITY --- Two bomb couriers of the New People’s Army surrendered while five others urged former comrades to avail of Malacañang’s reconciliation program for NPAs on Saturday.

Brig. Gen. Roy Galido of the Army’s 601^st Infantry Brigade in Tacurong City said Sunday the two NPAs who yielded Saturday to the 5^th Special Forces Battalion in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato also turned in assault rifles.

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Seven were killed as soldiers foiled an attempt by hundreds of guerillas to commemorate in Palimbang town Saturday the 52^nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The seven New People’s Army fatalities were shot dead one after another by personnel of units under the 603^rd Infantry Brigade in a series of encounters the past three days in the surroundings of Mount Lumuton in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat.