BIFF won’t yield guns of slain SAF troops

COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) yesterday admitted seizing 10 assorted high-powered firearms from the elite police commandos slain in the Mamasapano clash. But they will not yield the guns to government authorities who are seeking to retrieve the weapons, a BIFF spokesman said.

“Mayron kaming nakuha na sampung armas sa mga namatay na SAF ( Special Action Force),” Abu Misry Mama, BIFF spokesman, said in a live interview over dzRH yesterday morning.

“Hindi kami baliw na ibalik sa mga kalaban ang nakuha naming armas, (We are not crazy to return the weapons to the enemy),” Mama said when asked about the government’s calls for the retrieval of the slain SAF troops’ service firearms. “Gusto pa nga namin na isuko pa ng SAF sa amin ang iba pa nilang sandata… kase sila ang mga terrorista (We even want the SAF to surrender their other weapons… because they are the terrorists.)”

Earlier, reports said the

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leadership was mulling the possibility of yielding the firearms recovered by its combatants in Mamasapano to government authorities in deference to the group’s “sincerity” in pursing the peace overtures with the government.

Mama said it is the prerogative of the MILF to return to the government what its combatants seized from the slain SAF troops, but the BIFF would not do the same.

“Kalaban namin ang gobyerno na nakikipagusap sa MILF para sa panibagong autonomy. Sa parte namin, independence ang gusto namin, (Our enemy is a government that is negotiating with the MILF for a new autonomy. We want independence)” he told the Bulletin in a phone interview yesterday.

He said that while their group and the MILF differ in principles, their respective field troops observe general cordiality “kase lahat kami mga Muslim (because we are all Muslim).”

‘Terrorists’

He tagged the police commandos as “terrorists” claiming that they killed in “massacre” style civilian residents when they staged a dawn operation against Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Abdul Basit Usman in Mamasapano last Jan. 25.

He cited a certain Hadja Monera, who he claimed was handcuffed by SAF troops who later shot to death her husband and two children. Mama could not identify the three fatalities, only that they were residents of Barangay Tukanalipao, the scene of the bloody Jan. 25 clash. Mama said the case of Monera, who is called “hadja” for having performed pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, was not reported.

Reported killed in that clash were 44 SAF troops, 18 combatants from the BIFF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and five civilians, including an eight-year old girl.

No authority

According to Mama, it is not possible for the BIFF to join as a resource party in the ongoing separate investigations on the incident because they do not recognize government authority over them.

‘Ibz’ and ‘Teng’

He said he did not know of the presence of Marwan and Usman in Mamasapano where residents earlier mentioned the wanted bomb-makers as known by the names of “Ibz” and “Teng,” respectively. He said Marwan and Usman were neither members nor associates of the BIFF.

Usman video

Mama’s claim, however, was disputed by a video shown by a civilian source to the Manila Bulletin earlier. The video showed “religious extremism fanatics” from Lanao del Sur roaming around BIFF influenced-areas in Maguindanao and parts of North Cotabato late last year. The fanatics were identified as members of the “Black Flag Movement” known as Ghuraba. A few of the members posed for a photo with Usman somewhere in the jungles of Lanao del Sur.

At the height of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) uprising late last year, the Ghuraba and BIFF leaderships publicly pledged allegiance to the caliphate leadership of ISIS leader Abubakar Al-Baghdadi.

Mama said MILF field combatants in Mamasapano may have knowledge on the reported presence of Marwan and Usman.