Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr.
KORONADAL CITY—Former military chief Carlito Galvez Jr., now presidential peace adviser, on Monday, Oct. 7, condemned a renegade rebel group allied with Islamic State (IS) for the killing of seven Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members on Oct. 3 in a town in Maguindanao province.
In a statement, Galvez said authorities would “exert all efforts” to bring justice to the slain MILF men and bring to justice a faction of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) being blamed for the killings. BIFF is composed of former MILF fighters who rejected MILF’s peace deal with the government.
The attack on the MILF men, said Galvez, showed the brutality of terror groups and their objectives—sow fear, anger, hatred.
“Their twisted ideology does not recognize ethnicity or religion,” Galvez said in his statement. “They have no place in a humane, peaceful society,” he said.
Galvez condoled with families of the slain MILF members killed by the Turaype-Dawla group, a faction of BIFF allied with IS.
“The national government recognizes the gallantry of these former MILF combatants who stood their ground against the radical group,” said Galvez’s statement.
“For us they are heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to that their people can live in peace,” it added.
The government, he said, is one with the MILF leadership in providing aid to families of the slain MILF men./TSB