BIFF seen behind power line toppling

SOLDIERS rush to Barangay Tibao in Mlang, North Cotabato, to reinforce their comrades who figured in firefighting against about 50 Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter rebels on Thursday morning. WILLIAMOR A. MAGBANUA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

KABACAN, North Cotabato—Police authorities here said they have strong suspicions the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) was behind the toppling of a major power line of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Thursday evening.

The toppling of steel tower No. 141 in Sitio Malabuaya in Barangay Kayaga here at 7:40 p.m. plunged the provinces of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao, and the city of Cotabato into darkness. Some 3.4 million people live in the affected areas.

Chief Insp. Jordine Maribojo, Kabacan police chief, said the improvised bomb, similar to those used by BIFF forces in past attacks, was set off at the foot of the tower, which connects to the Kibawe power station in Bukidnon.

He said the improvised explosive device (IED), believed to be fashioned from a 60-millimeter mortar shell and fitted with a mobile phone as the trigger mechanism, was placed on one of the four legs of the tower, which is situated about a kilometer away from the Cotabato-Davao national highway.

“IEDs are signature armaments of the BIFF, which has recently started harassment in Maguindanao and North Cotabato,” Maribojo added.

But BIFF spokesperson Abu Misry Mama denied his group’s role in the explosion, saying it was not in their agenda to use explosives and topple power lines.

Mama said authorities should investigate deeper before coming out with any statement.

But he owned up to this week’s attacks by BIFF gunmen in Mlang, Tulunan and Midsayap towns, all in North Cotabato.

The latest was on Thursday, when BIFF men swooped down on Barangay Tibao in Mlang. However, the rebels were intercepted in time by soldiers as they were heading for the village proper, Mlang Mayor Joselito Piñol said.

Piñol said a heavy clash ensued between the soldiers and the attackers, numbering between 50 to 80 men, but there were no reports of injury.

“Military howitzers immediately sprang into action and targeted an area, where the armed men are believed to be based,” he said.

Asked how certain officials were that the attackers were from the BIFF, Piñol said that as soon as news of the armed men arriving reached him, he immediately called up the leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the town.

“The MILF [leaders] in the area denied that those were their men and assured us that they didn’t have any participation in the firefight,” he said.

Based on data from authorities, Thursday’s attack in Barangay Tibao was the fourth BIFF-instigated violence in North Cotabato in less than a week.

On Tuesday, BIFF gunmen also stormed a banana plantation owned by Del Monte Philippines here and in nearby Tulunan town, barely a day after storming Malingao village in Midsayap town, where they took more than a dozen hostages, mostly teachers, and killed three soldiers and two civilians.

Mlang and Midsayap are among North Cotabato’s border towns with Maguindanao, where the BIFF maintains a strong presence, particularly in areas of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh.

Capt. Tony Bulao, speaking for the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said Thursday’s attackers were the same men who harassed a banana plantation in nearby Barangay Dungos in Tulunan on Tuesday and left one plantation security guard wounded.

Bulao said the increased BIFF movement was aimed at derailing the peace process between the government and the MILF.

The BIFF is composed of former MILF members and was founded by Ameril Umbra Kato. Kato bolted out of the MILF over disagreements with fellow rebel leaders on the conduct of the peace process with the government.

Kato was also among the senior MILF leaders who led attacks on civilian communities in 2008 following the government’s dilly-dallying on the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), which would have given the rebel group a larger area of control under a future Bangsamoro state.

The MOA-AD was later struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Reports from Carlo Agamon, Edwin Fernandez, Williamor Magbanua and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao