3 BIFF members hurt as guards defend banana plantation

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  - Three members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters have been wounded in a brief encounter on Monday night with security guards of a multinational banana farm in Tulunan town in the province .

The bandits retreated,  carrying their wounded companions after sensing that they could not breach the perimeters of the Del Monte Fresh Produce banana plantation due to the heavy presence of the guards that fired at them first.

Intelligence sources identified the wounded BIFF bandits as Mokamad Batua, Edris Sajid, and a certain Muarif, who belong to a group based at the swampy border of North Cotabato’s Mlang and Tulunan towns.

Senior Inspector Ronnie Cordero, chief of the Tulunan police, said the bandits pounded with anti-tank rockets and shoulder-fire 40 MM grenades the surroundings of the plantation’s packing plant in Barangay Dungos as they fled in haste.

“No one from among the security guards were wounded or killed in the ensuing encounter,” Cordero said.

Local officials said the BIFF attack could be a retaliation for the military’s take over Friday of the group’s camp in Barangay Ganta in Shariff Saidona town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The camp fell after five days of air, ground and artillery assaults on BIFF positions around Barangay Ganta and at the camp, where the group had trained children and women on guerrilla warfare and production of improvised explosives.