AFP regains control of villages occupied by BIFF bandits

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  – Soldiers have regained control of villages in Pikit, North Cotobato that were occupied by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) for one week, the military said yesterday.

The BIFF bandits were forced out after the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion pounded them with artillery and engaged them in firefights, Lt. Col. Audie Edralin, commanding officer of the 7th IB, said.

More than 20 BIFF bandits were reported killed. Evacuees from Pikit’s five barangays have confirmed that five bandits were killed and seven others were injured in the two-day military attack.

Capt. Calvin Macatangay, spokesman for the 602nd Infantry Brigade, said the operation targeted around 3,000 BIFF bandits.

Edralin said the military operation was coordinated with the municipal peace and order council and the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“It was a law enforcement operation done with the help of the police and patriotic public officials,” Edralin said.

He said the BIFF intrusion displaced thousands of villagers, adding that the bandits burned more than a dozen shanties in Barangay Kalbugan.

He said concerned local government officials and members of the 7th IB would assist the  evacuees in returning to their homes.

Edralin said the office of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and Pikit’s local officials have been providing relief and rehabilitation services to the evacuees.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the military would continue to run after BIFF bandits.

“The aim is to pressure them to surrender,” Gazmin told reporters in Baguio City Saturday night.

“The mission is to finish them off. You won’t stop until your mission is completed so there is no deadline,” he added. – With Jaime Laude, Alexis Romero