Abu Misri Mama of Moro splinter group BIFF admits illness

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), suffered a stroke and his health is deteriorating.

Abu Misri Mama, BIFF spokesperson, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that his complicated health condition led to the stroke on November 11.

“I have high blood pressure and hypertensive heart disease but with the help of Almighty, I will be okay,” Mama said, adding he has been regaining his strength.

Earlier this year, BIFF founder Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato suffered stroke in 2012 and he died early this year.

The BIFF broke away from the MILF in 2008 and has vowed to continue the uprising, claiming that the Malaysian-brokered talks would not lead to a separate Bangsamoro homeland in Mindanao.

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, after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

The MOA-AD was the peace agreement signed between the Philippine government led by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the MILF.  SFM