BIFF gunmen kill soldier celebrating birthday

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Bandits shot dead Tuesday morning two soldiers emerging from a church in Datu Piang town where one of them lighted candles as birthday thanksgiving.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the fatalities, birthday celebrant Private First Class Rex Limpahan, 23, and his companion, 24-year-old Edward Baes, with the same rank, wore only plainclothes and were both unarmed when they were attacked.

Local officials and investigators of the Datu Piang municipal police said the gunmen were members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which has camps in secluded districts in Datu Piang and in nearby Salibo and Shariff Saidona towns, all in the second district of Maguindanao.

“The brutal murder of the two unarmed soldiers, while coming out of a church, was against international warfare norms," Hermoso said.

The motorcycle-riding suspects, armed with 9 millimeter pistols, casually pulled over near the entrance gate of the worship site and fired at the two soldiers as they came close, hitting them in different parts of their bodies.

The slain soldiers both belong to the 6th ID’s 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company, which figured in a series of deadly encounters with BIFF forces in Datu Piang and Shariff Saidona towns from January to August this year.

Sources from Datu Piang’s peace and order council, chaired by Mayor Datu Genuine Kamaong, said five other BIFF bandits acted as lookouts as the gunmen repeatedly shot Limpahan and Baes at close range.

The bandits had escaped toward a swampy area in the east of the municipality before responding policemen and soldiers from nearby outposts arrived at the scene.