Gov’t ready to thwart new rebel group

MANILA, Philippines - The government is ready to nip in the bud the Justice for Islamic Movement (JIM) with the help of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), considering the new terror group would pose a threat to efforts to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was doing its duty to monitor the activities of different armed groups.

“They will not be allowed to carry out any terror acts and will be stopped by the AFP,” Coloma said.

He stressed the military would do everything necessary.

Coloma added the military was continuously coordinating with the MILF to check the movements of different armed groups in their strongholds in Mindanao.

The AFP disclosed the JIM, a breakaway group from the separatist Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, was organized by Mohamad Ali Tambako after a falling out with BIFF founder Ameril Umbra Kato.

AFP spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla described Tambako as a radical Muslim cleric trained in the Middle East and was one of the leaders of the BIFF.

Tambako, according to the AFP, formed his own band of jihadists now reportedly providing sanctuary to bomb expert Abdul Basit Usman and at least five foreign militants.

Newly installed AFP spokesman and commander of the AFP Civil Relations Service Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala said Tambako used to be finance officer of the BIFF, directly involved in soliciting and collecting funds from foreign donors for their group.

Kakilala, former chief the AFP?fs anti-terror Joint Task Force General Santos City, said Tambako broke ranks with the BIFF following a rift borne out of leadership jealousy as well financial issues with their group?fs logistic officer, Sheikh Muhiddin Alimbang, alias Commander Kagi Karialan, shortly after Kato suffered a stroke in 2011.

Kato, meanwhile, is physically incapacitated with the left half of his body paralyzed, according to a relative.

The rift further widened, leading to the split after Karialan was nearly killed in a bomb attack in 2013. The incident was blamed on Tambako, who is known for his links with Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and then MILF Special Operations Group commander Basit Usman.

Usman, on the other hand, was repeatedly disowned by the MILF.

Marwan was killed in a covert operation by the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25. Usman, however, was able to escape though initial reports said he was wounded during the attack.

The Mamasapano operation, however, cost the lives of 44 SAF policemen who figured in a firefight with BIFF and MILF rebels.

Tambako is now reportedly coddling Usman and several other foreign jihadists, who from time to time were monitored to be in the company of BIFF rebels headed by Karialan.

“The two Muslim rebel groups may have different leaders with differing views, but they’re the same. They’re coddlers of terrorists,” Kakilala said.

Tambako had even assumed command of the BIFF for eight months, when Kato got so weak after his family confined him to a hut in a remote village somewhere in Shariff Aguak, South Upi and Guindulungan towns.

“The BIFF has less than 500 members and only about 300 of them are armed, but they are jihadists, whose extreme spiritual views were made so extreme by Kato’s kuthab (sermon) during Friday worship rites when he was still healthy,” 43-year-old peasant Udtog Kumbel said.

Local officials in Mamasapano, Datu Piang, Datu Saudi, Datu Unsay and Shariff Aguak towns said Kato’s most trusted lieutenants, including Karialan and Tambako, now act independently, their groups separated by factional divides.

The erstwhile BIFF commanders have openly pledged support to the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria during a gathering somewhere in Maguindanao in July 2014.

On the reported direct links of JIM and BIFF to al-Qaeda and ISIS, Kakilala said the report is subject of an ongoing validation.

As per previous monitoring, at least one Arab-looking and four Indonesian terrorists were seen with the group of Tambako.  – Delon Porcalla, Jaime Laude, John Unson