September 7, 2024 | 6:25pm
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Twelve more members of the allies Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters surrendered to an Army unit in Pikit, Cotabato on Friday.
Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Saturday, September 6, that the 12 ethnic Maguindanaon men pledged allegiance to the government after turning over their weapons to the 90th Infantry Battalion during a simple surrender rite in Barangay Ladtingan in Pikit, witnessed by local executives and Muslim religious leaders.
The Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF are known for fomenting animosity towards non-Muslims and had bombed, in attacks that started in 2014, a number of buses and commercial establishments in Central Mindanao after owners had turned down demands for money.
The 12 terrorists, five of them experts in fabrication of home-bombs, surrendered through the joint intercession of officials of the 90th IB, led by Lt. Col. Rowel Gavinales, the commander of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, Brig. Gen. Donald Gumiran, and municipal officials in the adjoining Montawal and Pagalungan towns in Maguindanao del Sur and in Pikit, Cotabato.
They first turned in an M14 rifle, five M1 Garand rifles, a .50 caliber bolt-action sniper rifle, a 40 millimeter grenade launcher, components for improvised explosive devices, a B40 rocket launcher, a dozen anti-tank rockets, and five fragmentation grenades before they renounced their membership with the Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF as a prelude to their reintegration into mainstream society.
As of Friday, 740 members of the allies Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF have surrendered in batches, since 2017, to different units 6th ID in the neighboring Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces.
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