BIFF – a new force to reckon with?

BIFF stands for Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. In the raging war in Central Maguindanao and some portions in North Cotabato that has begun during the wee hours of Monday, August 6, the BIFF or the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) has now become the new face of the Moro rebellion.  

 

The leader of the movement is a former commander of the MILF 105 Base Command based in the former Talayan mother municipality, the former Datu Piang mother municipality, and the former Maganoy mother municipality.  

 

The three mother municipalities turned into 10 municipalities. Prior to the infamous Maguindanao massacre in November 2009, the leadership of all said municipalities were allocated to the kin and kith of the Ampatuan clan. 

 

The three Talayan municipalities (Talitay, Talayan and Guindulungan) were given to the allies and in-laws of the Ampatuan patriarch Datu Andal Ampatuan. The three Datu Piang municipalities (Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Salibu and Datu Piang) were distributed to the apo, cousin and in-laws of the old patriarch. And the four municipalities of former Maganoy municipality (Datu Unsay, Sharif Aguak, Datu Hofer, Datu Saydona and Mamasapano) were allocated to the children and son-in-law of Datu Andal. In short, these areas used to belong to the Ampatuan Incorporated.

 

The only opposition to the near absolute rule of the Ampatuan clan (which enjoyed the unquestioned, full backing and logistical support of the AFP from the time of President Marcos to November 2009) was the 105th MILF base command under the “legendary” Ustadz Ombra Amelil aka Commander Kato whose base was the old MILF Camp Umar prior to the Estrada all-out war in the year 2000. 

 

The Ampatuan clan and its state paramilitary was the government counterforce against the “rebels”—first the Moro bandits, then the MNLF and in recent times the MILF in the same geographical areas. In fact, it was the Ampatuan “army” that fought all the wars between the GRP and the MNLF and the wars between the GRP and the MILF.  

 

The Ampatuans had cast their lot with GRP from the time of the American regime to the time of the Commonwealth, to the third Philippine Republic, the Martial Law Regime of President Marcos, to the present. They always sided with the Philippine Government. And this is the reason why they had always enjoyed the backing and support of government troops from the time of the Americans to November 2009.

 

Commander Kato became “notorious” even before the debacle of the 2008 Memorandum on Ancestral Domain between the GRP and the MILF. He and his troops went on “rampage attacks” in North Cotabato, specifically in the municipalities of Aleosan and Pikit. Commander Kato engaged the full force of the AFP in their so called hot pursuit that Commander Kato eluded. The 2008 Kato war without the official MILF support resulted to more than 500,000 people displaced. This was the beginning of his legendary exploits.

 

Intelligence reports purport that Commander Kato was rather very weak due to a massive stroke a few months ago that left him almost dead. Reports also had it that his troops were either returning to the MILF fold or to the MNLF. Others have already begun cancelling the threats coming from the BIFF or BIFM.

 

To everybody’s surprise, Commander Kato rose like the proverbial Phoenix and began harassing again military outposts both in North Cotabato (Midsayap and Pikit) and in Central Maguindanao (Datu Unsay and a portion of Datu Saudi) on August 6. These harassments were timed on the eve of the peace talks between the GPH and MILF in Kuala Lumpur, as if serving notice to all that there is a new bearer of the banner of the rebellion in the southern Philippines.  

 

The legendary Ustadz Ombra Amelil is NOT half dead and his BIFF is NOT a spent force. The mere fact that he is able to disrupt the flow of people and goods on the major highway between Cotabato City and General Santos City albeit in the Central Maguindanao portion tells us that everything would NOT be okay even if an agreement is reached between the GPH and the MILF. 

 

Is the signing of a new peace agreement a deju vu akin to the peace agreement in 1996 between the GRP and the MNLF? Post MNLF affaire, there remains the MILF. Will the same happen, post MILF signing a peace agreement in 2012, there remains the BIFF? The BIFF under the legendary Ustadz Ombra Amelil aka Commander Kato is a new force to reckon with in any equation that involves the Bangsamoro.