Insurgency: The BIFF Seize Maguindanao Town Center

Can and will another Marawi siege happen in the Philippines? That is the question many have been asking since 2017. It turns out the answer is yes.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1428924/is-linked-gunmen-seize-maguindanao-town-center-commuters-motorists-stranded

Heavily armed members of the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) occupied the center of Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao on Saturday.

Hundreds of motorists and passengers were stranded along the Cotabato-Maguindanao border as the highway passing through Datu Paglas to Tulunan town in Cotabato province was closed to traffic beginning at 4 a.m. Saturday.

Lt. Colonel John Paul Baldomar, speaking for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said about 200 heavily armed BIFF fighters under the Kagi Karialan faction occupied the town’s public market and established defensive positions.

Also in the market were vendors and civilians who were prevented by the BIFF from leaving, making them human shields.

Baldomar said the Army and the police have surrounded the area where the BIFF are located.

“We are giving the civilian leaders to negotiate with the BIFF for a peaceful end of the standoff,” Baldomar told reporters.

“When necessary, we will use force, right now we are assessing the situation,” he said.

Abu Jihad, speaking for the BIFF, confirmed that the gunmen who occupied the town public market belong to the Karialan faction of the BIFF.

He refused, however, to reveal why they occupied the town center.

While certainly not on the scale of Marawi it could have been a disaster as bombs were found planted around the marketplace. It also could have been prevented if local authorities had not welcomed these men into the city.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1429158/army-retakes-maguindanao-town-after-6-hr-biff-occupation

The BIFF militants took defensive positions in the town’s public market starting around 4 a.m., preventing some civilians from leaving and using them as human shields, according to Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Baldomar said the military gave local leaders time to negotiate with the gunmen to withdraw from the town to prevent bloodshed while prepared to dislodge them by force.

By 9 a.m., soldiers from the 601st Infantry Brigade and the police began their assault on BIFF positions, backed by attack helicopters.

After an hourlong offensive, the BIFF gunmen scampered away toward the hills bordering Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

No one was reported to have been wounded during the clash. Baldomar said bullet holes in the public market were the only damage reported.

Soldiers later found four improvised bombs planted around the market, which they safely deactivated.

The BIFF gunmen belong to a faction led by Kagi Karialan, which maintains strongholds around the Ligawasan Marsh, about 50 km away from Datu Paglas.

They have been under pressure from intensified military offensives since they tried to take control of Datu Piang town on Dec. 3 last year, and for attacking an outpost of the Joint Peace and Security Team composed of government troops and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town on March 18.

Datu Paglas Vice Mayor Mohammad Paglas told a local radio station in an interview that the gunmen were seen arriving in the town early on Friday morning aboard five cargo trucks. They were said to have been led by a certain Sulayman Tudon, and were also mostly from the town and were “young, about 15 to 25 years old.”

“Since it is Ramadan, the LGU (local government unit) allowed them in town, provided they will not harm the civilians,” Paglas said.

After learning of the gunmen’s presence, the Army sent troops to check.

BIFF spokesperson Abu Jihad said their members, numbering about 150, had no plans to seize Datu Paglas.

“Our freedom fighters were there to rest and were about to return to our camps when soldiers arrived and fired at us. We were forced to return fire,” he said.

Fearing a full offensive, the BIFF took over the town’s public market and ordered the marketgoers and vendors not to leave.

This article claims that the BIFF arrived in 5 cargo trucks and numbered 150. Later the government would reduce that number to 20. Why would 20 people need 5 cargo trucks? 20 people is only two jeepnies! It does not make any sense. These LGUs allowing in a group of men who attempted to take control over the city a few months back solely because it is Ramadan is insane. It's actions like this that allow the muslim insurgency to continue. LGUs in Mindanao appear to be not exactly opposed to militant Islamic groups.

It's also strange that despite there being only 20 men, according to the AFP, that none of them were captured or killed and all got away. That is incompetence. Especially when helicopters were overhead assisting in the fight. These BIFF fighters were all noted to be young, 15-25 years old. That makes sense because apparently BIFF recruitment is up.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/14/21/biff-recruitment-pandemic

Recruitment of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) has intensified amid the pandemic, Presidential Peace adviser Carlito Galvez, Jr. told Senators Friday, admitting that the government "failed" to foresee radicalization as an impact of the global health crisis. 

"We failed to consider the impact of the COVID-19. During the COVID-19, marami pong nagsara na mga plantations (many plantations closed down). At the same time, it restricts the people from doing things to take their livelihood," Galvez, a military chief and now Presidential peace adviser, told the Senate's local government panel.  

"Because of this situation... many people now, on the verge of hunger, madali po silang ma-recruit (it's easy to recruit them) considering that these are the situations that worsened their livelihood," he said. 

Galvez said the BIFF "exploited" the situation that made poor people more susceptible to recruitment.  

"Normally kasama dun ang some of the families ng MILF at also some of the families ng BIFF nawalan po ng trabaho (Normally this includes some families of the MILF and of the BIFF of lost jobs). Because of these hard situations brought about by the COVID-19, it also induces the members of the BIFF to exploit the situation and recruit," Galvez said.  

Asked by panel chair Sen. Francis Tolentino if the spike in recruitment was a "failure of intelligence," Galvez said it was not.  

"It’s not a failure of intelligence, but basically congruent disabling conditions in the Bangsamoro," Galvez said. 

How does Tolentino know it's not a failure of intelligence? Even if it's not Peace Adviser Galvez and Tolentino blame worsening condition in the BARMM.  That means they blame the government!

Duterte was of course outraged over this attack by the BIFF and had this to say:

https://www.cnn.ph/news/2021/5/11/Duterte-BARMM-deal-with-rebels-all-out-offensive.html

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday appealed to local officials in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to help his administration control rebels in the region to avoid an "all-out offensive." 

"Nagmamakaawa ako sa inyo tulungan niyo ko (I am begging you to help me). Because otherwise, if I give out an order for an all-out offensive, it will be bloody and it will be sad. Iyon ang ayaw ko (I do not want that)," Duterte said in a speech before BARMM officials in Maguindanao. 

"If I give the order, I will no longer withdraw it," he added. 

The President said the conflict "cannot go on," adding it will "cost innocent lives."

His remarks came after some members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) - a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - stormed a town in Maguindanao. The MILF is leading the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the interim government of the BARMM.

This is exactly why the AFP should be doing right now, engaging in an all-out offensive against the BIFF. This should have started in 2017 after the Marawi siege if not earlier. That the President is unwilling to give such an order shows he is not serious in ending the threat of the BIFF. Instead he wants them to peacefully surrender so he can give them money, housing, and jobs. 

Despite the lack of an order from the President the PNP says they are going on an offensive against the BIFF.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1432456/pnp-on-offensive-vs-biff-as-militant-group-beefs-up-recruitment

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has been ordered to take the offensive against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) after seeing an increase in the militant group’s membership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar issued the statement after Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. noted that the BIFF’s recruitment activities and attacks have increased amide the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Eleazar, who agreed with Galvez’s observation, said it is now “easy” for the BIFF to recruit members because “the pandemic has severely affected the livelihood of many people in Mindanao.” 

(The BIFF has exploited the hunger and unemployment being experienced by our countrymen. We will bolster our presence so the group won’t make its move.) 

Eleazar, however, pointed out that he does not believe there is a failure of intelligence in security forces as he enjoins the public to help the police and military counter the BIFF’s recruitment activities.

“This needs a whole-of-nation approach. Aside from the police and military, other government agencies and stakeholders also have roles to play in preventing recruitment by the BIFF,” Eleazar said.

Again the PNP chief blames the pandemic which means he is blaming the government's response to the pandemic which has killed the economy. What a shallow analysis. And he also says he does not think that there has been a failure of intelligence? Based on what? Going from past experience such as the Marawi siege there has definitely been some failure of intelligence somewhere along the line.

But the PNP is in the same boat as the AFP because this order cannot be properly carried out. That is because the BIFF live in the marshes and the AFP does not have the equipment to operate in that kind of terrain. Are we really to believe that the PNP has better and more advanced equipment than the AFP?

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1429584/to-strengthen-pursuit-of-biff-afp-wants-mobility-assets-for-marshland-operations

The Armed Forces of The Philippines (AFP) on Monday said it is in need of mobility assets, specifically for marshland operations, as it continues to be in “hot pursuit” of the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

According to AFP Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, members of BIFF have fled towards Liguasan Marsh, a wetlands that has seen a number of battles between government forces and extremist forces, most notably during the Mamasapano clash in 2015 that resulted in the “massacre” of 44 men of the Philippine National Police’s Special Armed Forces, now known as the SAF-44.

(The terrain there is a bit difficult, sad to note we don’t have enough capability for marshland operations)

(This is what I am addressing now in coordination with our major services, especially in the Philippine army so that we can acquire mobility assets for the Liguasan marsh.)

"Coordination with our major services?" That shameful lack of coordination is what prolonged the Marawi siege. One would hope that the navy would send in some gear and the Air Force would use their newly accrued assets  to offer air support. Sadly that seems to not be the case. With all these shenanigans how can anyone say the AFP is serious at stopping the Muslim and communist insurgencies?