Rivals BIFF and MILF forces clash in Maguindanao town

MAGUINDANAO ---- Rival groups in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fought in SK Pendatun town Tuesday, causing panic among barrio folk.The two groups, one led by MILF’s Malambeg Guiad and the other by a wanted BIFF commander, Gani Saligan, are squabbling for control of strategic areas in Barangay Midpandacan in SK Pendatun, Maguindanao.Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said the two groups figured in a three-hour gunfight Tuesday afternoon in Barangay Midpandacan, sending villagers running for their lives.Saligan, who hails from an interior barangay in Mlang town in North Cotabato, is wanted for heinous offenses, including multiple murders, robbery, extortion and propagation of Marijuana plants.He first gained notoriety in Mlang, but was eventually driven away by barangay volunteer militias and the local police.Tello said local officials have sent emissaries to leaders of the feuding groups to convince them to reposition away from Barangay Midpandacan.Tello said they have also sought the help of the joint government-MILF ceasefire committee to help defuse the tension in Barangay Midpandacan.The government and the MILF are bound by a 1997 interim ceasefire accord to mutually cooperate in addressing security issues in conflict flashpoint areas in Mindanao.The radical BIFF, which splintered from the MILF in 2010, is not covered by the truce.The BIFF boasts of loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is using the black ISIS flag as its revolutionary banner.