5 more BIFF members in Maguindanao surrender
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 11:15 AM Thu Jun 9, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
The leader of the five men turned over a rifle during a surrender rite Tuesday. (From 6th ID)
COTABATO CITY - Five more members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters from Maguindanao province returned to the fold of law Tuesday, an Army official announced Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said they are to facilitate, along with government agencies, the return of the five men to the local communities.
The BIFF operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is blamed for deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.
Gubat said the five BIFF men yielded through backdoor efforts of the Army’s 1 Mechanized Infantry Brigade and its component-unit, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion.
They turned in firearms and components for improvised explosive devices before they pledged allegiance to the government in a simple rite Tuesday in an Army brigade headquarters in Tacurong City.
They belonged to one of three BIFF factions operating in secluded barangays at the border of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces that are covered by units of 6th ID.
Gubat said the five former BIFF members, whose names were withheld for security reasons, are to be reintroduced to mainstream society.
The BIFF and its ally, the Dawlah Islamiya, are known for attacking members who have returned to the fold of law and their relatives. (John Felix Unson)