6th ID expecting more surrenders as 14 more BIFF yield
Mindanao Peace Process • 18:30 PM Sun Jan 9, 2022
811
By:
John M. Unson
the 14 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters also surrendered their firearms and launchers for anti-tank rockets. (From 6th ID)
MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato --- Fourteen more members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters have surrendered, a regional Army official said Sunday.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering six provinces and four cities, said the 14 BIFF members pledged allegiance to the government Thursday through the efforts of the 34th Infantry Battalion and the 601st Infantry Brigade.
The surrender rite was held at the 34th IB’s headquarters in Barangay Salunayan here, witnessed by local officials.
The BIFF, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is blamed for all deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2013.
Uy said the 14 BIFF members turned in assorted firearms and components of improvised explosive devices.
More than 300 BIFF members in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces have surrendered in batches to units of 6th ID in the past 16 months.
“Credit for this feat has to go to our units and local officials in the provinces,” Uy told reporters Sunday.
More than 50 members of another terror group, the Dawlah Islamiya, have also returned to the fold of law one after another in the seven months.
Uy said they are expecting the surrender of more Dawlah Islamiya members soon following the death of its top emir (leader), Salahuddin Hassan, in a brief encounter with pursuing soldiers just two months ago in Talayan town in Maguindanao.