NORTH COTABATO CIVILIANS FLEE AS ARMED MILF TROOPS MASS UP

By Jeoffrey Maitem, Karlos Manlupig

Inquirer Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Residents in a remote barangay (village) in Pikit, North Cotabato, have evacuated after armed men were seen massing up, a military official said Thursday.

Captain Jo-anne Petinglay, 6th Division spokesperson, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone that residents of Barangay Kabasalan in Pikit town were frightened by the presence of Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Eastern Mindanao Front under Commander Jac Abas.

Petinglay said the rebels have been monitored in the area since Tuesday, prompting civilians to temporary seek refuge in nearby villages.

“As of now, there is no engagement. We have sent troops in Kabasalan,” she said.

A source in Pikit town said a group of armed men under Kagui Karialan of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were also sighted in the same barangay.

There was no immediate statement from the leadership of the MILF about evacuation of civilians.

The situation in Pikit occurred a week after 44 members of elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force were killed during an intense firefight with combined forces of MILF and BIFF in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

The police were on a mission to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, also known as Marwan. After killing Marwan and as they were pulling out from the scene, they were attacked by MILF’s 105th Base Command and BIFF rebels.

Aside from the 44 slain SAF men, 18 rebels and five civilians were also killed in the fighting.

Meanwhile, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Thursday afternoon launched an operation to flush out members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in North Cotabato province more than a week after the debacle in Maguindanao province.

A firefight broke out between the MILF forces under commander Jack Abbas and BIFF members in Barangay (village) Kabasalan, Pikit town, around 5:50 p.m. on Thursday, military officials said.

The MILF operation could be the group’s “way of showing they are partners and antiterrorist,” said an official of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), who asked not to be named.

“The fighting is going on now. Residents are evacuating,” Capt. Jo-anne Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Division, told the Inquirer by phone.

The BIFF, led by Kagi Karialan, resisted the MILF forces and exchanged gunfire, a military source said.

Abbas led some 1,000 men from the 108, 109 and 110 Base Commands (BCs) in the operation against the BIFF in Kabasalan, Pikit, officials said.

The Inquirer also learned he would mount a similar operation against the breakaway group in Sultan sa Barongis town, Maguindanao.

(Photo caption: HEIGHTENED ALERT Government troops position their tanks on Wednesday along the highway in Mamasapano where a clash between members of the SAF and the BIFF on Jan. 25 left 44 police commandos dead. On Thursday, fighting between Moro rebels and their breakaway group erupted in the town of Pikit, North Cotabato, where the BIFF, fearful of retaliation from government forces, had sought refuge. The MILF offensive is widely seen as their attempt to show the former is PH partner in the antiterror drive. JEOFFREY MAITEM/INQUIRER MINDANAO)