By: Philippine News Agency
January 5, 2015
Camp Siongco, Maguindanao – Major General Edmundo
Pangilinan, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, led division officers and
men in according heroic military honors Sunday to the fallen soldiers who
perished in simultaneous attacks by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
(BIFF) in the borders of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat.
Corporal Daniel T. Valenzuela III and PFC Karl Bernie D.
Arriba were killed after about 50 heavily armed BIFFs harassed the detachment
of the 33rd Infantry Battalion on Saturday morning in Barangay Katiko,
President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat.
On the same day, the BIFF attacked another Army base in
Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Capt. Joanne Petinglay, spokesperson of the 6th ID, said the
family of the soldiers received posthumous awards for the heroes during the
ceremony.
Pangilinan assured the family that all forms of assistance
will be extended to them and that benefits that due them will be immediately
processed.
The remains of Villanueva and Arriba were transported to
their respective towns in San Isidro Lagao, General Santos City and Malita,
Davao Del Sur, respectively.
Petinglay noted that, as early as December last year, the
terrorist group BIFF had already announced that it will conduct atrocities in
order to disrupt the Yuletide celebration of the soldiers.
She said the BIFF was also responsible in harassing a
military detachment in Guindulungan, Maguindanao hours before Christmas Eve.
Despite the incidents, Petinglay said the whole area of
operation of the command remained to be generally peaceful and that 6ID will be
supporting law enforcement operation to go after the said group in order to
preempt their terror plans.
The BIFF is a ragtag former member of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) which broke away from the revolutionary movement in
2008 to push for an independent Islamic State in Mindanao.
Over the weekend, its spokesman Abu Misry Mama also bared
that their armed group was now affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS).
In 2014, the military neutralized 19 BIFF members, 17 of
them were killed, in several skirmishes and two were arrested and charged for
various crimes.
Petinglay said the military in Maguindanao, North Cotabato
and Sultan Kudarat continue to be on alert to thwart any attempt by lawless
elements to sow terror even as she urged the public to help authorities prevent
crimes.
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