14 more BIFF members surrender to Army
MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato -- Fourteen members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, five of them experts in fabrication of home-made bombs, pledged allegiance to the government Monday.
They yielded assault rifles, B40 anti-tank rockets and components for improvised explosive devices to officials of the Army’s 34th Infantry Battalion during a surrender rite here Monday, witnessed by local officials.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Tuesday the 14 terrorists surrendered through the intercession of Lt. Col. Edgardo Vilchez, Jr. of the 34th IB, the North Cotabato provincial police and local executives here and in nearby Northern Kabuntalan, Maguindanao.
“We ought to thank them for having convinced these 14 men to avail of our reconciliation program for violent religious extremists,” Uy, commander of 6th ID, told reporters.
The group belonged to a BIFF faction led by Kagui Karialan, who is facing more than 30 criminal cases in different courts in central Mindanao.
More than 200 members of the outlawed BIFF, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have surrendered in batches to units of the 6th ID in the past 12 months.
The 14 BIFF members renounced their membership with the group and pledged allegiance to the government after turning over their firearms to Vilchez and Col. Jovencio Gonzales of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade during Monday’s event at the 34th IB headquarters in Barangay Salunayan here.
Uy said the 34th IB, the 602nd Brigade and the LGUs here and in Northern Kabuntalan shall cooperate in reintroducing them to mainstream society.