Army clashed with combined MILF, BIFF forces in Maguindanao
• 06:52 AM Fri Jul 29, 2016
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By:
Ferdinandh Carbera
Government forces move to waiting miltiary trucks that brought them to Maguindanao battlefield. (Ferdinandh Cabrera)
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao – In rare occasion
since January 2015, government forces and combined Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) clashed Thursday morning,
both military and the MILF have confirmed.
At the break of dawn, government forces and members
of the MILF’s 105th and 118th base commands along with
outlawed BIFF traded shots and artillery with the military using its air
assets.
The encounter which lasted until 6 p.m. Thursday
occurred in the so called SPMS” box or the adjoining towns of Shariff Aguak,
Pagatin (Datu Saudi), Mamasapano and Shariff Saydona, all in Maguindanao’s
second district.
Members of the Malaysian-led International
Monitoring Team and GPH-MILF ceasefire committees succeeded in calling for
cessation of hostilities.
A ceasefire agreement exists between the Philippine military
and the MILF which was once broken when MILF and BIFF joined forces in the now
infamous Mamasapano encounter. In that incident, 44 elite police unit members
and 17 Moro rebels were killed.
The PNP Special Action Force (SAF) mission was to
put down Zulkifli bin Hir, the Malaysian bomb-making expert who trained Moro
dissidents in home-made bomb-making. The
mission, although successful, was seen as a black eye on former President
Aquino’s government.
Mohaqher Iqbal, chair of the MILF peace panel,
confirmed the clash after government forces breached a marker identifying MILF
identified areas inside the SMPS” box.
However, Colonel Lito Sobejano, 601st
Infantry Brigade chief, denied the Army entered MILF identified areas. Government forces have been pursuing BIFF
bandits who attacked an Army base in Shariff Aguak last week.
Sobejano said the MILF was expected to help the
Philippine military in hunting down terrorists, especially if they sought
refuge in MILF areas as stipulated in the GPH-MILF ceasefire agreement.
Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town
told reporters that the MILF’s 1018th base commander under Commander
Wahid Tundok was involved in the skirmishes.
Dimaukom accompanied the GPH-MILF ceasefire panel
and IMT in separating the warring groups.
A cessation of hostilities was in effect before
dusk, the Army repositioned its troops, including its artillery and armoured personnel
carriers,” he said at 7 p.m.
Both the military and the MILF refused to issue
casualty figures.
The day-long fire fight has sent more than 3,000
families, according to the Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team of
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM-HEART)
But many civilians opted to stay until afternoon in
their communities. However, at night
they moved to safer grounds away from clash site.
Surayma Nanukan, a resident of Datu Saudi Ampatuan,
told reporters she and her family was waiting for instructions from local
leaders where to evacuate. We are ready
to move, our things are packed up,” she said.
Classes in at least 20 schools in and around the
SPMS box have been suspended to accommodate displaced families. (Ferdinandh
Cabrera)