Mindanao Armed Conflict

CAMP Siongco, Maguindanao – Army troopers of Joint Task Force Central discovered an Anti-Personnel Mine (APM) while conducting route security in Pikit town of North Cotabato on November 20, 2020.

A CAFGU Active Auxiliary (CAA) found an APM at 11:30 in the morning, particularly in Sitio Dasulong, Barangay Ginatilan of the said municipality. Immediately the troops from 90th Infantry (BIGKIS LAHI) Battalion proceeded to the area to secure the vicinity.

MAGUINDANAO --- Authorities are clueless yet on Saturday’s murder of the former police chief of Jolo whose subordinates then shot dead four Army agents in a mysterious encounter in June.

The 41-year-old Lt. Col. Walter Annayo, not a captain as stated in an initial report from the municipal police station in Sultan Mastura town in Maguindanao, died on the spot from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

MAGUINDANAO --- Six more Dawlah Islamiya members whom state intelligence units tagged in recent terror attacks surrendered Friday through the joint intercession of local officials and the military.

Badtongan Amino, Rasid Sangkali, Nasrudin Talib, Mohammad Abdul Samad, Khulo Amino and Aladin Gaapar voluntarily turned themselves in to Mayor Marop Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao and Lt. Col. Cresencio Sanchez, Jr. of the 1^st Mechanized Infantry Battalion.

LANAO DEL SUR --- Tension in Kapatagan and Balabagan towns is waning following the settlement this week of a bloody clan war involving two big Moro families.  

Brig. Gen. Jonas Lumawag of the 1^st Marine Brigade said Friday leaders of the Mama and Macatoon clans, locked in a deadly “rido,” or clan war for years, swore over the Qur’an Tuesday to end hostilities that have exacted fatalities on both sides.

MAGUINDANAO --- The three confessed bomb-couriers of an outlawed terror group who surrendered early this week are now being reintroduced to mainstream society, a regional police official said Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said the three members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF, have pledged allegiance to the government after renouncing their membership with the group.

SULTAN KUDARAT ---- A big group of New People’s Army guerrillas returned to the fold of law Sunday and pledged allegiance to the government.

The 63 NPAs are from Senator Ninoy Aquino town in Sultan Kudarat.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said Monday the rebels turned in 32 assorted firearms and explosives to local officials and officials of the 7^th Infantry Battalion under the 601^st Infantry Brigade.

SOUTH COTABATO ---- Army special forces operatives killed five Dawlah Islamiya gunmen in a gunfight in Polomolok town on Friday morning.

One of the fatalities is Arafat Bulacon, a senior leader of the Ansar al-Khilafa Philippines, a dominant subgroup in the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya.

The Dawlah Islamiya operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is blamed for all deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.

SULTAN KUDARAT ---- A joint Army-police team killed in a brief shootout Wednesday in Esperanza town a senior leader of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya.

Jazzer Nilong, tagged in a recent bombing in General Santos City, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the gunfight with personnel of the Army’s 7^th Infantry Battalion and members of the Police Regional Office-12 in Barangay Saliao in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – The hostilities involving government forces and communist rebels in the mountains of Matalam, North Cotabato have sent villagers fleeing to safer grounds.

Disaster officials in Matalam have listed 51 families or about 255 individuals who sought refuge in the village covered court following clashes that left a ranking official of New Peoples’ Army dead.

Zaldy Gulmatico Pulido, secretary-general of Guerilla Front 53, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee was killed in a clash with soldiers belonging to 90^th Infantry Battalion.

NORTH COTABATO --- Soldiers shot dead a senior official of the New People’s Army in a gunfight on Saturday morning in Matalam town. 

Zaldy Gulmatico Pulido, secretary of the NPA’s self-styled Guerilla Front 53-Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, died instantly from multiple gunshot wounds.