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Truth is often stranger than fiction. Consider this Exhibit A for today.
“The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) has no plans of returning the firearms seized from some of the elite policemen killed in the January 25 Mamasapano clash unless the Philippine National Police (PNP) will agree to a ‘rematch,'” reports Andrei Medina on GMA News Online.
In a recent phone interview with GMA News Online, BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama said in Filipino, “It is not BIFF’s nature to return seized weapons. It’s not as if we borrowed them.” He explained that that they consider the slain policemen’s equipment as spoils of war.
Mama then likened the encounter with the PNP-Special Action Force (SAF) troopers to a boxing match where they “knocked down” the opponent.
Thus, he said the BIFF “won’t return the 10 high-powered firearms, among them a bazooka, which he said they got without a fight.”
“Let’s have a shootout before they can take back their guns. They should have a rematch with us,” Mama said.
The BIFF has maintained its stance despite the fact that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has recently returned 16 weapons seized from the fallen SAF troopers. The MILF has said that they are for peace, distancing themselves from the BIFF whom they say are not committed to the peace process.
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
