BIFF group behind Maguindanao ambush – police

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – Police have blamed a group of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) for the August 30 ambush that killed the police chief of Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province and his aide.

Authorities said the ambush was the handiwork of a group led by one Abdulnasser Sabtulah Guianid and Guipar Abdulkarim a.k.a. Commander Boy Jacket, and composed of Sala Tunda, Johari Abdulbasser Guinaid, Phepe Saptulah, Abdulrah Sapal, and Bobot Kamsa.

The group is known as the Karialan faction of the BIFF.

Bangsamoro Local Governments Minister Naguib Sinarimbo assured that BARMM’s officials were helping the police in bringing the group behind the ambush to justice.

Sinarimbo said BARMM Senior Minister Abdulraof Macacua, who is also the chief of staff of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has instructed their ground commanders to help in pursuing the suspects.

The revelation that a BIFF group was involved came even as a document surfaced about an alleged intelligence report that supposedly alerted authorities that Ampatuan police chief Lieutenant Reynaldo Samson was marked for death days before the ambush in the village of Kapinpilan on Tuesday.

Samson and his aide, Corporal Salipudin Endab, were killed while three others – Senior Master Sergeant Reynante Quinalayo, and corporals Rogelio Dela Cuesta and Marc Clint Dayaday – were wounded when armed men sprayed their patrol vehicle with automatic gunfire.

Samson’s team was headed back to their police station after they failed to locate Kamir Kambal, a man ordered arrested by a court concerning a robbery case when they were attacked in Sitio Pasio, Barangay Kapinpilan.

Maguindanao police spokesperson Major Reggie Abillera said Samson and Endab were killed on the spot. 

“The volume of fire was directed at the vehicle’s front where they were seated,” he said.

A police intelligence operative claimed his group submitted an intelligence report to their superiors as early as August 23 alerting them that the BIFF group led by Guianid planned to assassinate Samson.

The intelligence report said the group was “out to liquidate Police Lieutenant Reynaldo Samson at any opportune time.”

The exact reason for the alleged plot was unclear, but a copy of the intelligence report showed it had something to do with Samson’s “strict implementation of traffic rules and regulations” in Ampatuan town.

The document could not be immediately validated, but hours after the ambush, Camp Crame replaced Maguindanao police director Colonel Christopher Panapan with Colonel Roel Rullan Sermese from the Soccsksargen regional police.

Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. and PNP chief General Rodolfo Azurin Jr. went to Maguindanao on Wednesday, August 31, to confer Samson and Endab with posthumous awards. – Rappler.com