Mindanao Armed Conflict

Combined troops of 7IB; 602nd Infantry Brigade; 34IB; 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company; EOD Team; and Pikit PNP recovered Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) and other paraphernalias today, 27 December 2019 at Sitio Blah, Brgy Manaulanan, Pikit, North Corabato while pursuing the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter (BIFF).

COTABATO CITY --- The critically wounded victim of Tuesday’s ambush in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao died in a hospital Wednesday, the second fatality in the attack that also hurt a vice mayor.

Hadji Akmad Lumenda Ampatuan succumbed to multiple bullet wounds on Wednesday afternoon, according to relatives and local officials in Shariff Aguak.

COTABATO CITY --- Local executives today urged residents here and in towns in North Cotabato to be watchful of the surroundings following Sunday night’s bombings that hurt 19 people.

Sixteen persons, among them Army servicemen, were hurt in the explosion in downtown Cotabato City while five more got injured minutes later in another blast that rocked Libungan town in North Cotabato, about 30 kilometers away.

MANILA -- Checkpoint operations in Mindanao will continue despite the lifting of martial law by year-end.

"Well definitely checkpoints are going to continue, after all even without the martial law, checkpoints are there," Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in an interview with CNN Philippines' "The Source" Wednesday.

Arevalo was responding to questions on how Mindanao will look with the lifting of martial law.

MANILA -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is not inclined to recommend any Christmas truce with the remaining communist rebels, citing that the latter is using the season as an opportunity to regroup their forces.

MAGUINDANAO --- The municipal treasurer of Ampatuan, Maguindanao who was badly wounded in an ambush today is Roshel Kuit and not her husband, Jeric, as reported earlier by the police.

The couple, both wounded, was on a black Montero bearing license plate CAM 4811 when gunmen positioned along a stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Barangay Bagan in Guindulungan, also in Maguindanao, shot their vehicle while passing by.

Relatives said the victims were on their way to Ampatuan from Cotabato City when they were attacked. 

MAGUINDANAO --- The Joint Task Force Central on Monday acknowledged the role of local officials and barangay leaders in the Army’s recent takeover of a dozen lairs of the Dawlah Islamiya in the province.

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division that controls the anti-terror task force said Monday the 6^th ID is also grateful to the local government units that supported their security operations the past three weeks in Maguindanao’s Mamasapano, Shariff Saidona, Shariff Aguak and Datu Saudi towns.

MAGUINDANAO --- Soldiers seized Thursday assault rifles, an anti-tank rocket and explosives scattered in an abandoned Dawlah Islamiya lair in Barangay kuloy in Shariff Aguak town.

The cache was found by servicemen of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion in makeshift shelters of terrorists in Barangay Kuloy, where they also found a live mortar round that can be converted into a powerful IED.

COTABATO CITY --- Personnel of the Army’s 5^th Special Forces Battalion seized six more improvised explosive devices found along trails crisscrossing abandoned hideouts of the Dawlah Islamiya in Shariff Saidona Mustapha town.

The IEDs were found one after another in Barangay Pamalian in Shariff Saidona Mustapha, a hostile town in the second district of Maguindanao where the Dawlah Islamiya terror group had enclaves that are now occupied by soldiers.

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Government troops nabbed two ranking communist leaders and seized several high-powered firearms of the New People's Army following a law enforcement operation in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte at dawn of December 1, 2019.

Soldiers and policemen nabbed Christopher Cañete and Virjon Virtudazo in a combined operation in Barangay Dableston, Sultan Naga Dimaporo.