11 more BIFF members surrender in Maguindanao del Sur – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Eleven more members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) pledged allegiance to the government on Wednesday morning and promised to help units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division convince their few remaining companions to return to the fold of law.
Major Gen. Donald M. Gumiran, commander of the 6th ID, told reporters on Wednesday that the 11 BIFF members renounced their membership with the group during a symbolic rite at the headquarters of the 90th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Kabengi in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, in the presence of local officials and representatives of different government agencies.
The 11 terrorists surrendered through the joint intercession of local executives in Maguindanao del Sur’s adjoining Datu Abdullah Sangki, Datu Unsay, Datu Hoffer, Shariff Aguak, Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Ampatuan municipalities, officials of the 90th IB, the 6th Civil Military Operations Battalion and the 601st Infantry Brigade.
Mr. Gumiran said officials of municipal police stations in the six towns and other units of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office under Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, were also instrumental in the surrender of the group.
The 11 BIFF members, among them experts in fabrication of improvised explosive devices, first turned over their combat weapons and home-made explosives.
The Labor department in region 12 and the office of Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin G. Sema have joint capacity-building interventions meant to ensure the productivity of erstwhile members of the allies BIFF and the Dawlah Islamiya while being reintegrated into mainstream society.
The surrender of the 11 BIFF members brought to 921 the number of local terrorists who have yielded since 2021. — John Felix M. Unson