Ameril Umbra Kato, seated, the commander of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). AP FILE PHOTO
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—This time, reports about his death were not greatly exaggerated.
Ameril Umra Kato, the founding chair of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) who was reported to have passed away twice before, is dead.
BACKSTORY: Ameril Umbra Kato dead—Muslim leader
BIFF spokesman Abu Misri Mama said the group’s founding chair “has returned to his Creator.”
Mama said he had talked on the phone to the BIFF leader’s son who confirmed the death. “He was buried this (Tuesday) morning,” he said in a phone interview.
“We have pictures of his burial,” Gen. Gregorio Catapang, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, said, confirming Kato’s death.
‘Natural causes’
“He died of natural causes. Before this, he had a diabetic stroke that immobilized him,” Catapang said.
Sought for comment on Kato’s death, MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told the Inquirer that the BIFF was now leaderless.
Earlier, Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, quoting Kato’s relatives and close allies, said the BIFF founding chair had a cardiac arrest at 2:30 a.m., Tuesday, in his hideout in a remote village of Guindulungan town.
“Yes, his relatives confirmed he succumbed to cardiac arrest,” Dimaukom told the Inquirer, adding that the 69-year-old renegade Moro leader had suffered a mild stroke in 2011. Kato was said to have had another stroke just last April 7.
Islamic theology scholar
The BIFF broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has signed a peace agreement with the government. The BIFF is pushing for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao.
Three sources other than Mama and Dimaukom told the Inquirer that Kato, who studied Islamic theology in Saudi Arabia as a scholar, succumbed to a stroke around 2 a.m. in his hideout in a mountainous area in Bagan village in Guindulungan.
All three sources requested anonymity as they were not the authorized spokespersons of their organizations.
“It is 99.99 percent confirmed,” one source told the Inquirer. “He has been described as a ‘living dead’ because he had a stroke some time ago.”
Another source said that Kato was buried around 7 a.m. in the village of Kateman, also in Guindulungan.
READ: Kato still calling the shots in BIFF, says spokesman
The same source, however, also said that his informants had told him that Kato had died in Andavit village in Datu Piang town, some 10 kilometers away from Guindulungan.
The informant said Kato died of hypertension. He also had a heart ailment.
A military report on Kato, culled from reports of several sources, including the MILF, local residents and nongovernment organizations in the area, said Kato died at 2 a.m. and was said to be interred in Sitio (settlement) Kanatul, Barangay (village) Katamen in Guindulugan.
Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, chief of the AFP public affairs office, said that Kato was first reported dead in 2008, and again in 2011, after suffering a stroke.
No clear succession
Iqbal said the BIFF did not have a clear leadership succession.
Nonetheless, he said, it was possible a new leader could still emerge after Kato’s death.
But Iqbal said another possibility was Kato’s demise “could give way for those who joined Kato to return to the MILF.”
Iqbal said the MILF had always kept an “open-arms” policy to its commanders and members who have broken ties with the group.
But he stressed that the MILF would take back only those who did not have criminal charges filed against them by government.
Kato (then commander of the MILF’s 105th Base Command), his cousin, Wahid Tundok, and Aleem Sulayman Pangalian led MILF units in bloody attacks in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte in August 2008, soon after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
The MOA-AD was the peace agreement signed between the government led by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the MILF.
Kato was replaced by his deputy, Zacaria Goma, as commander of the MILF’ 105th’s Base Command.
Tundok and Pangalian eventually returned to the MILF and have remained with the group.
Continuity
Mama said the BIFF did not have a choice but accept the fate of its founding leader.
“We cannot do anything about it. We will mourn but the BIFF will not die with him,” Mama said.
He said the structure of the BIFF, as a revolutionary organization, ensured that if a person or a leader died, someone would automatically replace him to ensure the continuity of the struggle.
The rebel spokesman explained that the council of leaders of the BIFF would immediately meet to talk about the direction and the adjustments in the organization.
“As of the moment, the BIFF’s vice chair for political affairs, Ustadz Abubakr Esmael, will temporarily fill the position until the plenary,” Mama said.
Since 2008, the BIFF has since been attacking military positions in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.
Mamasapano clashes
The BIFF, along with the MILF’s 105th Base Command, was involved in the Jan. 25 fighting in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, that left 44 police commandos, 17 rebels and three civilians dead.
A month after the Mamasapano incident, the military launched an all-out offensive against the BIFF, which is suspected of coddling bomber Basit Usman, an associate of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” on the wanted list of the United States. Marwan was killed but Usman escaped in the Special Action Force operation against them last January.
The military said it killed more than 100 BIFF rebels in the monthlong offensive.
Talks with BIFF
While the death of Kato diminishes the threat posed by the BIFF, the government should still open talks with the group, according to Sen. Francis Escudero.
“To totally eliminate the threat of the BIFF, we should also engage them in talks and make sure that development reaches their areas,” Escudero said in a text message on Tuesday.
READ: Is BIFF the MILF’s ‘BFF’?
Earlier, Escudero said that for the government to settle the peace and order problem in Mindanao, it should engage all groups in the area, not just the MILF. The other groups pose a security threat as well, he said.
He had also said that the passage of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, a product of the peace deal between the government and the MILF, was not an assurance of lasting peace in Mindanao.
‘Good news for peace’
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the death of Kato could be good news for peace in Mindanao.
Pimentel noted that there were some organizations that get its strength primarily from the personality of its leader.
If the BIFF is a group heavily dependent on Kato, it could self-destruct or dissipate with the demise of its leader, he said.
Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala, AFP spokesman, said Kato’s death would be a welcome development on the AFP’s fight against the BIFF.
“Kato is the source of inspiration by the members of the BIFF who joined him in waging violent attacks against peaceful communities,” he said.
With Kato’s death, Kakilala predicted the gradual demise of the BIFF.
“Also, his death would open the door for greater peace and unity in Central Mindanao because Kato was staunchly against the peace talks between the (Philippine government) and MILF,” he added.–With reports from Cynthia D. Balana, Julie M. Aurelio and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila and wires
Originally posted: 11:35 AM | Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
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