Soldier killed, companion hurt in latest BIFF attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — An army corporal was killed while another was hurt as local terrorists fired rifles at a military outpost in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao del Sur late Thursday.

Col. Oriel Pangcog, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, identified the fatality as Cpl. Allan Balena.

Balena, of the 6th Infantry Battalion, was with members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit assigned in the roadside detachment in Sitio Butalo in Barangay Sambulawan, Datu Salibo that combined members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Dawlah Islamiya attacked.

Balena’s wounded companion is now recuperating in a hospital.

Villagers and local officials, among them members of the municipal peace and order council, told reporters the gunmen behind the atrocity were led by “Commander Jacket,” who is facing a number of criminal cases pending in courts.

He was tagged in the fatal ambush in Barangay Kapinpilan in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur last August 29 of PolicePolice Lt. Reynaldo Samson and a subordinate, Corporal Salipudin Endab.

Samson, then chief of the Ampatuan municipal police, and his subordinates were to arrest a wanted person in Barangay Kapinpilan in the same municipality they were ambushed by gunmen led by Commander Jacket.

Samson and Endab were killed in the incident that left three other members of the Ampatuan municipal police wounded.

Pangcog said the BIFF gunmen who shot with M16 rifles the detachment at Barangay Sambolawan scampered away when militiamen inside returned fire, preventing them from closing in.

Local residents said three from the attackers were wounded in the exchange of gunfire, one of them a minor named Mansur Samad.

Talks have been spreading around Datu Salibo stating that the attack was in retaliation for the seizure by soldiers of 16 improvised explosive devices hidden in a BIFF hideout in a nearby barangay in the same town five days before.