“Red God” civilian defenders set on fire an ISIS flag in Central Mindanao mountains on Jan. 19. JEOFFREY MAITEM
SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL MINDANAO—Some 300 armed Christian civilians on Tuesday gathered in a hinterland area of this region as they vowed to stand up against attacks by a radical Moro group.
Calling themselves “Red God’s soldiers,” the armed civilians also burned a replica of the IS flag and pledged to defend their lands and families from the atrocities of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) as they raised their weapons, mainly automatic rifles.
The BIFF is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which staged deadly attacks on civilian communities in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat in December. At least 11 people were killed in the said attacks.
Brother Asiong, the group’s spokesperson, said they had grown tired of the BIFF and they could not cow in fear anymore.
He said they have to stand up and fight for themselves because the military was not always there to defend them.
“We are always under attack even if we are just working in our farms. We were forced to arm ourselves. We don’t want to die without doing something,” he said to a group of reporters.
Brother Asiong also urged President Benigno Aquino III to help them in the land conflict they had been embroiled in with their Moro neighbors. The land conflict, he said, worsened with the BIFF’s advent.
He said for the Christian landholders, their claim to the lands were legitimate and backed by documents.
“But now the rebels wanted to take them back,” Brother Asiong said.
Meanwhile, he clarified that their group was different from the Ilaga or Tadtad, which had been blamed for many cases of human rights violations and killings of unarmed Moro—women and children included—in the 1970s and the 1980s.
Brother Asiong said unlike the Ilaga, their forces were contained in their respective communities and were for defense purposes only. RC