Soldiers stop BIFF from taking stretch of Cotabato highway

NORTH COTABATO , Philippines   â€“ Government forces foiled early yesterday an attempt by members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to occupy a stretch of the national highway in M’lang town.

Members of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division drove the estimated 80 armed bandits away when they tried to assemble at the boundary of barangays Tibao and Dalapitan in Matalam, North Cotabato.

No one was reported killed or wounded in the clash, but the incident caused panic among residents.

Capt. Tony Bulao, spokesman of the 603rd Brigade, said government combatants had taken position in barangay Tibao as early as Wednesday night after villagers reported to authorities the plan of BIFF members to take over the portion of the highway between M’lang and Matalam.

M’lang Mayor Joselito Piñol, chairman of the municipal peace and order council, confirmed that he received reports from concerned Moro residents of the BIFF’s plan.

Piñol said the soldiers and the bandits traded sporadic shots for about three hours, causing panic in barangays Tibao and Dalapitan.

Piñol said the firefight stopped only when the attackers, some of them clad in BIFF’s black combat uniform, withdrew towards the Liguasan Marsh.

Troops later pounded the rebel position with artillery fire.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, civil affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said another group that retreated from Midsayap town, where they held civilian hostages and beheaded a 31-year-old farmer Ricarte Dionio last Monday, also clashed with soldiers near barangay Paidu Pulangi in Pikit, North Cotabato and the Dasawao area in Saidona Mustapha, Maguindanao.

The clashes in M’lang, Pikit, and Saidona Mustapha occurred after another group of BIFF bandits attacked the Del Monte Philippines banana plantation in barangay Dungos in Tulunan, North Cotabato.  – With Edith Regalado