Tight security in BARMM after Sulu bombing

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Security in central Mindanao, where Islamic State-inspired groups operate in some area, is markedly tight since Saturday following a deadly bombing at an Army base in Indanan, Sulu.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the Bangsamoro regional police have deployed intelligence agents in strategic areas in the region to detect movements of all three factions in the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a known ally of the Abu Sayyaf operating in Sulu.

Security has also been tightened in parts of Lanao del Sur where there are remnants of the Maute terror group that the military and police have long said are working with the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf, the BIFF and the Maute operate in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, who teach hatred for non-Muslims.

The bombing by Abu Sayyaf bandits of the Army’s 1st Brigade Command Team in Indanan town in Sulu last Friday left eight people, three of them soldiers, dead. The blast also left 22 injured.

Police intelligence assets deployed

Brig. Gen. Marni Marcos of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Sunday that intelligence units have enlisted the help of local officials and traditional leaders in putting closure to the incident.

Marcos said probers will immediately file cases against the culprits once they are identified.

Marcos said units of PRO-BARMM in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur are now monitoring markets, public terminals and busy areas in the two provinces as part of their security measures meant to forestall terror attacks in the two provinces.

“We also have parallel security efforts in BARMM’s scattered Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan provinces,” Marcos said Sunday.

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Western Mindanao Command said they will not hesitate to use force to quell potential threats to Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities in the Bangsamoro region.

"We and the PRO-BARMM are also focused on an in-depth investigation on the latest bombing in Sulu so that corresponding criminal cases can be filed against the perpetrators," Sobejana said.

Sobejana said the WestMinCom is mourning the deaths of three soldiers killed in Friday's bombing in Indanan.  

He said the military will bring the bodies of the three soldiers killes in the blast — PFCs Dominique Inte and Ricarte Alban and Cpl. Richard Macabadbad — to their families in their hometowns.

Inte and Alban are both from Zamboanga del Sur province while Macabadbad hailed from Payatas in Farview, Quezon City.

Sobejana said the families of the three soldiers had been informed of their deaths.