Military strikes kill over a dozen BIFF members

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — More than a dozen bandits from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were reportedly killed in the military's bombardment over the weekend of peasants enclaves in Pikit the group took over last week, forcing thousands to evacuate to safer areas.

The police and military are preparing for possible retaliations by the BIFF for losses in week-long skirmishes with soldiers and militiamen in Pikit town in southeast of the province.

Seven of the BIFF fatalities were identified by evacuees as Mariga, Aliman, Samsudin, Muktar, Pendih, Sukarno and Musib, all adolescents, who were killed when 105 Howitzer projectiles landed and went off near them as soldiers tried to push them back into the Liguasan Delta, from where they launched their simultaneous intrusions in barangays at the boundary of Pikit and Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.

The BIFF's spokesman, Abu Misry Mama, was quick to deny their reported losses, even warning of more attacks in the province apparently to scare local folks into sheling out money, grain cereals and livestock in exchange for their protection.

The bandits had burned down no fewer than 20 houses in the barangays they occupied in what local officials said was part of a ploy to intimidate villagers into paying the group "protection money" on a regular basis.

Senior Supt. Danny Peralta, police director of North Cotabato, said they have intensified their security preparations against the BIFF after receiving feedback from community leaders that the outlaws are trying to regroup for more incursions on hapless farming communities within its reach.

Lt. Col. Audie Edralin, commanding officer of the Army's 7th Infantry Battalion based in the town proper of Pikit, said Muslim elders and clerics have urged him to continue with their community patrols in the villages cleared last Sunday from bandits to prevent them from coming back.

Edralin said the confidential informants, some of them barangay officials, have warned of plans by the extremist group to avenge the deaths of bandits killed in skirmishes with 7th IB combatants last weekend.

"And we're not taking chances. Our soldiers and the police are helping each other address these security issues. The local government of Pikit and the office of the provincial governor of North Cotabato remain on top of the situation," Edralin said.

The BIFF has been blamed for recent deadly bombings in North Cotabato, including the detonation of an improvised explosive device at the public market of Mlang town last December 31, which killed two and wounded more than 20 others.

The BIFF is known for enforcing a ruthless Taliban-style justice system in areas where it operates, in total disregard of the legitimate community pacification programs of barangay governments as provided for by the Local Government Code.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza on Monday said she has directed her constituent-mayors to impose tight security measures to stave off new BIFF attacks.

Mendoza's office and the local government unit of Pikit have started allowing the return of evacuees from barangays affected by last week's hostilities in the municipality.

Peralta said police intelligence agents have so far been validating the possibility that the BIFF could be behind the local criminal gangs engaged in motorcycle theft, highway robberies and drug trafficking that emerged in the province in recent months.

Peralta said about 60 percent of the 5, 698 total crime volume in the province in 2014 were index crimes, including motorcycle and cattle theft.

Most recorded cases of armed robbery and cattle theft in the province in 2014 occurred in areas where the BIFF operates.

Local officials in Maguindanao said the BIFF has more than 50 members the slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, and his ethnic Maguindanaon accomplice, Abdul Basit Usman, together trained in the handling of explosives and fabrication of improvised bombs in the past three years in Mamasapano town.

"They are good at fabricating explosives made only of materials that can be found in the hands of bandits and Moro rebels such as mortar rounds, anti-tank rockets and Ammonium nNtrate fertilizer which can become combustible powder if mixed with gasoline and sulfur," an official said.