6 BIFF men in Pagalungan return to fold of law
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 07:30 AM Thu Jul 8, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
The six men who yielded Wednesday also turned in their weapons. (Photo courtesy of Jess Ali)
MAGUINDANAO --- Six more members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters surrendered to the military Wednesday.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Thursday the group yielded through backchannel intercession by officials of the 90th Infantry Battalion and Mayor Salik Mamasabulod of Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.
Pagalungan is near the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, a common lair of the Dawlah Islamiya’s BIFF, the Ans'ar Khilafa Philippines and the Al-Khobar groups that are all operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Uy said the six men, whose names he kept pending their relocation to safe areas, shall be reintroduced to mainstream society with the help of the office of Mamasabulod and agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Uy said besides the 90th IB and the Pagalungan local government unit, the commander of the 602nd Brigade, Brig. Gen. Roberto Capulong, was also instrumental in convincing the six BIFF members to renounce their membership with the group.
Three of the six men are confessed couriers of powerful improvised explosive devices fabricated by BIFF bomb-makers.
The BIFF has a reputation for bombing public conveyances, transportation terminals and markets to avenge losses in encounters with pursuing state security forces.
More than a hundred members of terror groups under the Dawlah Islamiya, tagged in bloody acts of terror in recent years, surrendered to the 6th ID in the past seven months.
The six BIFF members also turned in B-40 anti-tank rockets and launchers and assault rifles before they pledged allegiance to the government during a simple surrender rite on Wednesday in the town proper of Pagalungan.