BIFF loses fund-raiser with Tambako arrest
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—With the arrest of Mohammad Tambako on Sunday in General Santos City, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) lost a key fund-raiser for its terror activities, according to the military.
“The group has been weakened, even disabled,” said Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, speaking for Task Force Central (TFC), a military-led group tasked with going after the BIFF following the bungled police operation to take down a Malaysian bomb expert and his Filipino aide in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25.
Tambako and his armed followers, estimated to number 100, were believed to be among the armed men who clashed with the elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police in Mamasapano. The police commandos succeeded in killing suspected Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” but lost 44 policemen.
Seventeen Moro rebels and three civilians were also killed in the fighting.
Until his arrest by government agents on board a tricycle on his way to a port in General Santos, Tambako led his own group, the United Justice for Islamic Movement, after BIFF leaders reportedly expelled him for beheading a farmer in North Cotabato province in 2013.
He, however, still had clout in the BIFF, whose leader, Ameril Umra Kato, “is seriously ill,” Petinglay said.
Kato founded the BIFF after breaking away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) due to disagreements in the conduct of peace negotiations with the government. The MILF and the government are on the final stage of a peace settlement to end a decades-long armed insurgency in Mindanao.
“Tambako was ousted from the BIFF in 2013. However, last year he was monitored to be with the BIFF again, especially in Barangay Dasikil, Mamasapano,” said Petinglay, who is also the spokesperson for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.
The BIFF maintains a major camp in Dasikil, which Army soldiers captured early this month as part of an all-out offensive against the groups that fought the police commandos in Mamasapano. Bomb-making materials were seized in the camp.
Citing intelligence information, Petinglay said Tambako and his men left Maguindanao probably in the second week of the three-week-old law enforcement offensive inside what the Army termed “SPMS Box,” referring to the four adjoining towns of Shariff Aguak, Pagatin (Datu Saudi), Mamasapano and Shariff Saydona Mustapha, all in the second district of Maguindanao.
Even with Tambako in the hands of the government, Petinglay said, the TFC would continue to hunt down Amin Baco, another trusted man of Tambako, Filipino bomb expert Basit Usman, and remnants of the BIFF.
Petinglay said the task force was looking into reports that some BIFF members were hiding among civilians who had taken shelter in evacuation centers amid the military attacks. She called on the rebels to surrender to end the suffering of the more than 123,000 evacuees.
“If they love their families and relatives, they should surrender now. They can send their feelers to our men on the ground and we will respect their rights,” she said.
Abu Misri Mama, spokesperson for the BIFF, turned down the appeal. “It’s not in the vocabulary of real mujahideen fighters to surrender to their enemies,” he said.
“With the help of Allah, we will continue the fight,” he added.
