Muslim convert Robin Padilla pleads to fellow Muslims: Don’t fight gov’t

DATU SALIBO, Maguindanao—Muslim convert Robin Padilla, known also as Abdul Aziz, is trying to bring star power to the government’s campaign to suppress violent extremism, asking his fellow Muslims in Maguindanao to shun violent ideologies or teachings.

Padilla, who rose to fame portraying Robin Hood-type criminals, on Wednesday (Aug. 7) joined officials and non-government organizations in the province in bringing aid to families displaced by fighting between government forces and Islamic State-linked members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“My Muslim brothers and sisters, don’t go against the government, instead, unite and support its programs,” Padilla appealed to the evacuees.

Lt. Col. Elmer Boongaling, 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, said reading glasses were also distributed to sight-impaired evacuees. The officials also offered free circumcision, a practice commonly associated with Judaism.

The villagers fled fighting between soldiers and BIFF men, under Abu Toraife, in several villages that left one soldier and 15 rebels dead in the town of Shariff Saydona Mustapha.

Town Mayor Said Islam Ampatuan said close to 1,500 families were displaced and given aid./TSB