Military readying troops to fight Sayyaf, BIFF

DAVAO CITY – The military is readying its forces to fight the notorious Abu Sayyaf group allied with the ISIS and other jihadist organizations in the restive Muslim autonomous region.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said security forces would now focus its efforts on those militant groups following the end of five months of deadly battle with local ISIS fighters in the besiege city of Marawi.

The battle left over 960 militants and 165 soldiers dead, including 47 civilians and displaced more than 200,000 people. Lorenzana said troops will now run after the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu province and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao province, and other allied groups in other parts of the region.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said he would order the military to go after the rebel group New People’s Army following the collapsed of peace talks due to continued communist attacks on government targets in Mindanao.

Duterte trashed peace negotiations with communist leaders and abandoned efforts by his peace negotiators to convince rebels to stop attacks on government and military targets.

Rebels demanded the immediate release of nearly 500 political prisoners, mostly commanders and NPA leaders, as a condition for the resumption of the stalled talks. Duterte already freed over 2 dozen communist leaders, but the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said the President should have released all political prisoners.

Rebels have vowed to continue attacks on military targets as government peace negotiators failed miserably to convince the separatist group to sign a ceasefire accord and pursue talks aimed at ending the decades-old insurgency in the country.