SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — A senior member of the Dawlah Islamiya implicated in more than a dozen deadly terror attacks in central Mindanao surrendered to the military Wednesday.
Khalid Kalaing renounced his membership with the Dawlah Islamiya and pledged allegiance to the government after turning over to officials of the 7th Infantry Battalion four assault rifles during a simple rite in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Thursday Kalaing yielded through the joint intercession of Brig. Gen. Roy Galido of the 601st Infantry Brigade, Lt. Col. Romel Valencia of 7th IB and local officials.
Kalaing belonged to the Maguid faction in the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF.
The BIFF is tagged in all deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.
The group operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
It has a reputation for setting off improvised explosive devices in bus terminals, in markets and inside commercial establishments and restaurants to avenge losses in clashes with pursuing state security forces.
“It is not too late yet. The government can help usher Khalid Kalaing back to mainstream society,” Uy said.
No fewer than 90 Dawlah Islamiya members from central Mindanao’s adjoining Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces have surrendered in batches to units of 6th ID since September last year.
Kalaing’s surrender was simultaneous with the return to the fold of law by 21 members of the New People’s Army in Lebak town, also in Sultan Kudarat province.
The group surrendered to the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, also a component unit of 6th ID.
The most senior guerilla in the group, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said they were enticed to turn themselves in with how former comrades got reintegrated into mainstream society via the government’s reconciliation program for communist insurgents.
“We are tired of hiding in the jungles every time soldiers tracking us down get close to our hideouts,” the group’s leader said in Hiligaynon vernacular.
The NPA is known for venting ire on relatives of comrades who have bolted out.
“Our main concern now is for us to be relocated to areas far from reach of our former companions,” said another member of the group.
Uy said the 21 NPAs operated in the hinterland borders of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces.