Authorities preparing for more BIFF incursions

MAGUINDANAO --- Authorities are bracing for more attacks by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters to avenge the deaths of members killed and wounded in encounters with soldiers the past five days.More than 500 families, meanwhile, are in makeshift relief sites and houses of relatives in safer areas in Salibo town in Maguindanao, displaced by BIFF attacks in the municipality last December 30.BIFF bandits also attacked Barangay Nabalawag in Midsayap town in North Cotabato at nighttime on December 31 and fired assault rifles at houses and a nearby Army detachment, wounding a soldier’s wife named Norcel Bulay-Bulay.The incident was preceded by the detonation by bandits at noontime the same day of a roadside bomb along a thoroughfare in Talitay town in Maguindanao.No one was hurt in the bombing, but the powerful explosion triggered panic among local residents.Barangay officials said the explosive was intended for a convoy of relief workers and soldiers frequenting Talitay to extend humanitarian services to villagers displaced by the government’s recent anti-narcotics operation in the municipality targeting Mayor Muntassir Sabal.President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier tagged Sabal, now at large, as narco-politican, who is included in Malacañang’s list of local officials involved in large-scale drug trafficking.Sources from the municipal peace and order councils in different towns said seven BIFF bandits were killed while five others were wounded, mostly adolescents, when soldiers guarding the detachments in Salibo that they attacked returned fire.The slain bandits, identified only as Salik, Ansao, Talib, Norodin, Tulas, Sahayde and Sahidali, were killed while trying to sneak through the fences of the Army detachments they attacked from different directions.Despite confirmation from local officials, the BIFF denied that seven of its members were killed in the encounters.Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of BIFF, said only two from their ranks were wounded and that none was killed in the ensuing firefights.Mama said the attacks were perpetrated to avenge the death of Thamrin Esmael, chairman of the BIFF’s self-styled internal affairs group, in a recent encounter with soldiers in a nearby town.Supt. Bernard Tayong, chief of the Midsayap municipal police, said they are tightly guarding barangays that are vulnerable to BIFF attacks.He said the harassment of villagers and soldiers in Barangay Nabalawag last week was perpetrated by BIFF gunmen led by Commander Tong.The commander, wanted for heinous offenses, is a known ally of two large-scale drug traffickers, Renz Tukuran and Mokz Masgal.Tukuran and Masgall were both driven away from Midsayap by policemen in a series of anti-narcotics operation between late October until November last year.The operations resulted in the arrest of 20 heavily-armed followers of the two drug lords, whose networks peddled shabu in remote areas in Midsayap and and nearby towns.Local police investigators are still validating reports purporting that the December 24 grenade attack near the Santo Niño church in Midsayap that injured 16 people was pulled off by a drug ring dislodged from the municipality.