Soldiers launch attack vs BIFF

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Soldiers on Saturday pounded with artillery the positions of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Pikit, North Cotabato to force them out of peasant enclaves where they collect "protection money" from poor villagers.

The bombardment was triggered by the BIFF’s ambush of members of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion while patrolling at Barangay Bulol in Pikit, a bastion of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The BIFF, led by radical clerics enforcing a ruthless Taliban-style justice system in areas where they operate, does not recognize the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the MILF.

Lt. Col. Audie Edralin, commanding officer of the 7th IB, said his men were on their way to a secluded area in Barangay Bulol to validate the reported presence of BIFF bandits harvesting crops of villagers that evacuated last week following a series of encounters with MILF forces.

The BIFF bandits, led by Gani Saligan and Imam Karialan, thrice figured in running firefights last week with MILF forces under Jack Abbas in Kalbugan District at the border of Pikit and Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.

The hostilities caused the dislocation of more than 10,000 ethnic Maguindanaon families, now confined in makeshift relief sites near the town proper of Pagalungan and Pikit.

Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the military's response to the BIFF’s attack on patrolling soldiers on Saturday was calibrated, just enough to drive them away.

Petinglay said the 7th IB is now initiating means, along with the police, to force the bandits out of the peasant enclaves they took over last week.