8,000 families displaced in MILF, BIFF clashes

MANILA, Philippines - More than 8,000 families have been displaced by the recent clashes between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its breakaway group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Central Mindanao, officials said yesterday.

Cynthia Ortega, chief of the North Cotabato disaster risk reduction and management council, said some 1,700 families fled for fear the tension might escalate.

Ortega said six North Cotabato villages – Barungis, Bagoinged, Buliok, Rajah Muda, Bulol and Kabasalan – were affected by the firefights.        Families from Pagalungan town in Maguindanao also evacuated due to tension between the MILF and the BIFF, said Armed Forces public affairs chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc.

“The families are in evacuation centers in Pagalungan and Pikit. The local governments are assisting them,” Cabunoc said.

The groups are reportedly fighting for control over portions of the Liguasan Delta at the Maguindanao-North Cotabato border.

Cabunoc said the military does not interfere with the conflict between the MILF and BIFF.

At least three encounters between the groups were reported last week.

Last Monday, a BIFF guerilla was killed while two others were wounded in an alleged firefight with MILF members in Barangay Kalbugan.

Another gunbattle erupted in the same barangay last Wednesday after BIFF members reportedly entered an MILF-controlled village.

The third occurred last Saturday in Barangay Kalbugan in Pagalungan town and resulted in the death of an MILF commander.

The MILF and BIFF had denied any encounter between them. The clashes were reportedly due to a clan war.