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MILITANTS fighting in the name of the Islamic State group are escalating attacks in Mindanao, analysts said, deepening fears for the volatile region after its main Muslim rebel group failed to seal a peace pact.
Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the jihadists controlling vast swathes of Iraq and Syria have instigated a series of deadly battles with the Army since Congress failed to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law to implement the government’s peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last month.
An assassination attempt this week on a visiting Saudi Arabian preacher who was on an IS hit list has raised the alarm further, although police said they had yet to determine the gunman’s motives.
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“Their influence is growing stronger and it is expanding,” Rodolfo Mendoza, a senior analyst at the Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research said, referring to IS.
He said the various local groups that had pledged allegiance to IS were “planning big operations, like bombings, attacks or assassinations.”
Such violence has plagued large areas of Mindanao for decades, as Muslim rebels have fought a separatist insurgency that has claimed 120,000 lives.
The violence has left the region one of the poorest in the Philippines, while allowing warlords and extortion gangs to flourish.
The biggest rebel group, the 10,000-strong MILF, had been working hard with the administration for nearly six years to broker an end to the rebellion.
But when Congress failed to pass the BBL last month that would have granted autonomy to the region, the peace process was frozen.
The MILF has pledged to honor a ceasefire while it waits for President Benigno Aquino III’s successor to be elected mid-year.
But hardline groups opposed to compromise with the government have started to take advantage of the vacuum, as they sense an opportunity to raise their profile and prove their credentials to IS, analysts said.
“There is an incentive if they show that they are a fighting force,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, who specializes in Southeast Asian security issues.
In the most spectacular attack, a previously obscure group discounted by the military as a small-time extortion gang launched an assault on a remote Army outpost.
The attack triggered a week of fighting that the military said left six soldiers and at least 12 militants dead, and forced more than 30,000 people to flee their homes.
The gunmen flew IS flags during the fighting, and bandanas with the group’s insignia were found when soldiers overran their base, a two-story concrete building, the military said.
At the same time about 100 kilometers away, soldiers were battling a bigger and much better known group that had previously declared allegiance to IS, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
That fighting, which began about a week after Congress missed its deadline to pass the BBL, has claimed the life of one soldier, the military said.
The clashes continued Thursday. Agence France Presse video footage on Tuesday showed rockets being fired from an Army helicopter, as well as troops in a cornfield firing mortars and carrying a wounded soldier on an improvised stretcher.
The military announced it had regained control of a village used by the BIFF to harass government forces.
“Fighting is still ongoing in Barangay Tee because there is still resistance from the armed men and our troops are treading on what we believed was a minefield,” Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, 6th Infantry Division commander, told reporters in Filipino.
Four more soldiers were killed as clearing operations intensified.
“The BIFF was still firing mortars toward Army positions as of Thursday morning,” Capt. Joann Petinglay, 6th ID spokesperson, said.
Pangilinan and his team had just arrived in the village of Tee at 1 p.m. Wednesday. As soon as he disembarked from an Army vehicle, two improvised bomb explosions came in succession.
As he monitored through military radio, he heard a soldier seeking assistance as four of them were hit by BIFF bombs beside a creek in Barangay Tee. Then, another explosion.
Minutes later, the fourth IED went off as heard through a military radio set.
This prompted Pangilinan to shell enemy positions with mortars and air strikes. For about an hour, two MG-520 attack helicopters were pounding the area with rockets while ground troops and military ambulance evacuate the four wounded infantrymen from Barangay Tee to the 6th ID base in Maguindanao.
“We actually captured the BIFF stronghold but it was littered by improvised bombs and the area remained dangerous,” Pangilinan said, adding that the Army has not issued the green light for displaced civilians to return.
Sgt. James Joloro, among the four wounded soldiers, said he was leading a team clearing the former BIFF launching pad against Army when he stepped on one of the IEDs.
“I stepped on it followed by a light blast,” Joloro told reporters. “Luckily, the 60 mm mortar main charged did not explode, only the blasting cap, ” Joloro added, saying he was now on his “second life.”
Since the fighting began on Feb. 5, about 50 improvised bombs have been detonated, defused and exploded in Barangay Tee and its environs, reports from the 6th ID showed.
Four soldiers were killed while 25 others were injured due to IED blasts and BIFF’s rifle grenade attacks.
About 40 BIFF were believed killed during the month-long fire fight, the 6th ID said.
As the number of BIFF increased, the military augmented its forces. Col. Lito Sobejana, 601st brigade chief, said a Marine contingent has arrived in Datu Salibo to augment Army units.
Col. Mel Budiongan, 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade commander, said more than 40 BIFF are believed killed base on the data gathered by Army ground troops and information provided by the locals.
However, Budiongan admitted there was no body count.
Petinglay said foot soldiers found several shallow mass graves believed to be burial sites of slain BIFF but the soldiers did not touch them.
The BIFF split from the MILF in 2008 after the previous peace process collapsed, then carried out attacks on Christian communities that left more than 400 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
“We all know what happened in 2008. We don’t want that to happen again,” MILF spokesman Von al-Haq said.
“If the government keeps dragging its feet on the peace process, this fighting will continue and more groups will be enticed to follow ISIS,” he said, using another name for the Islamic State group.
Abuza also said more attacks could be expected from other groups that have publicly pledged allegiance to IS in Internet videos over recent years.
These include the Abu Sayyaf, a group notorious for kidnapping foreigners.
The violence has over the decades mainly been restricted to the south, many hundreds of kilometers from the capital.
But the Abu Sayyaf bombed a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004, killing more than 100 people.
Authorities have regularly said fears of growing IS influence on Filipino militants are misplaced.
They argue the militants are just criminals interested in money, and not radical Islamist jihadists.
But Abuza said the ability of IS to provide money and other forms of support were key to its rising influence in the south, and not its violent brand of Islam.
“It really has nothing to do with ideology,” Abuza said. “This is all about resources.”
As the fighting escalated, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation called on the Bangsamoro people to unite and remain committed to the peace process.
While OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameed Madani expressed his “deep disappointment” over the non-passage of the BBL, he urged the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front to use existing mechanisms such as the Bangsamoro Coordinating Forum to reach a unified position.
Madani said the firm commitment of the MILF to the peace process was important in preserving the gains of the peace negotiations and sustaining the ceasefire mechanisms to prevent future violent encounters between forces of the government and the Moro group.
Also on Thursday, the Palace said it respects the MILF decision not to endorse any candidate or participate in the May elections.
“We respect the views expressed by Mr. [Mohagher] Iqbal [of the MILF]. It is the right of any organization to endorse or not to endorse candidates,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., in a statement.
But earlier, MILF Vice Chairman Ghadzali Jaafar praised presidential aspirant Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for his character and leadrship.
“Duterte is brave,” Jaafar said, during the presidential aspirant’s visit to an MILF camp recently.
“We are inspired by his courage as we are impressed by what he did to Davao, a city that is progressive—where business is good and where people are given the opportunity to better their lives,” said Jaafar.
Jaafar, together with other top MILF leaders and members, warmly welcomed Duterte into their camp.
Jaafar said that if Duterte wins, he will also transform the Philippines just like how he transformed Davao City.
Among the five presidential aspirants, no one has visited the camp so far except Duterte.
But Jaafar also clarified to reporters before his meeting with Duterte that the Central Committee of the MILF will not endorse any candidate.
“Not even Duterte,” Jaafar said.
“Members of the MILF, their families and the members of the communities will be given their independence to choose whoever they want to choose,” he stressed.
During the meeting, Duterte said his visit at Camp Darapanan was not to campaign but to present to MILF leadership his proposal in resolving Mindanao conflicts and discuss the pressing issues that confront the Moro people.
