Another Dawlah bombmaker surrenders to the Army

COTABATO CITY — Another bombmaker from the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya has surrendered to the military, pledging to help persuade the remaining members to return to the fold of law.

The 35-year-old Badruddin Saligua Mundir, known to many local executives in Central Mindanao as an expert in fabrication of powerful improvised explosive devices that can be detonated from a distance using mobile phones, pledged allegiance to the government during a symbolic rite at the headquarters of the Army’s 1st Brigade Combat Team in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday, May 21.

Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Friday, May 23, that Mundir agreed to surrender through the joint intercession of Brig. Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara of the 1st Brigade Combat Team and local officials in Maguindanao del Norte province.

Mundir told reporters that he decided to avail of the 6th ID’s reconciliation program for violent religious extremists after learning that all of his companions who had surrendered early on had been reintegrated into the local communities. They are now thriving as farmers, tricycle and jeepney drivers, construction workers and laborers in agricultural farms in Central Mindanao.

The surrender of Mundir on Wednesday brought the total number of bombmakers from the weakened Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who have yielded since 2022 to 37. These surrenders were made to units of the 6th Infantry Division across Central Mindanao, covering Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Sarangani and the cities of Cotabato, Tacurong, Koronadal, and General Santos.

The allies Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF, known for fomenting animosity towards non-Muslims, have a reputation of bombing buses and commercial establishments to compel owners to shell out “protection money” and are also both notorious for collecting money and food forcibly from hapless farmers in remote areas.

Gumiran said the 6th ID is thankful to all who cooperated in securing, via backchannel dialogues, the surrender of Mundir, who is now undergoing religious reorientation by moderate Islamic theologians supporting the anti-terror operations of the division in Central Mindanao.