Group warns vs spike of violence ahead of BARMM polls

COTABATO CITY—An independent monitoring group has warned anew against a renewed spiral of violence in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the run-up to the regional parliamentary elections in September this year.

In a statement, Climate Conflict Action Asia (CCAA) on Tuesday said the ambush in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur, on March 28 “blows the whistle on a new round of vertical violence and its steep rise in the first quarter” this year.

Through its network of local monitors of critical conflict events in the region, CCAA had noted a resurgence of violence in the BARMM with the recent one targeting state security forces.

In the first quarter of the year, CCAA recorded 13 violent attacks against security forces and 15 violent incidents involving actors affiliated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the group that forged a landmark peace deal with the government 12 years ago.

Saturday’s ambush resulted in five police officers slain, three currently recuperating in a local hospital for serious injuries, and six government-issued firearms carted away by the attackers.

The eight police officers who figured in the incident were returning to camp after a police visibility patrol around 9:30 p.m. when waylaid amid a power blackout in the town.

Narratives

Police said a grenade was lobbed at the passing patrol car, followed by a series of gun fires coming from different directions.

On Tuesday, Maguindanao del Sur Gov. Datu Ali Midtimbang offered P300,000 in cash reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspects of the March 28 ambush.

CCAA noted that there are two narratives that are gaining ground to explain what happened.

The first, coming from people from the local communities, painted the incident as a continuation of the conflict string stemming from a violent political feud (“rido”) between two prominent groups in the area.

“The circumstances of the ambush indicate that it was not happenstance but well planned, and the ferocity shows that it was most likely a revenge killing rather than a chance encounter,” CCAA pointed out.

A second narrative, CCAA said, suggests that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the Maguindanao branch of the Dawlah Islamiyah (DI) extremist group, was behind the attack.

The attack occurred within the so-called SPMS box, a corridor hemmed in by the Maguindanao del Sur localities of Salbo (now Datu Saudi Ampatuan), Pagatin (now Datu Salibo), Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak, home to members of the BIFF which had suffered serious setbacks from the series of successful military operations since October last year.

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Recruitment

Apart from the killing of members in battles, the BIFF had also lost high-powered weapons as well as lost fighters who surrendered to authorities.

In contrast, the BIFF’s comrades in the Lanao corridor, according to CCAA, are seeing “resurgence of recruitment” hence the March 28 ambush “could indicate a show of force by the DI in the Maguindanao area.”

“The (March 28) incident, irrespective of its cause or the perpetrators, is a shameful stain on the Bangsamoro peace process and a stark reminder of the utter failures of the decommissioning and normalization aspects of the political settlement,” CCAA emphasized.

CCAA said it is worried about the prospect of DI resurgence fueled by the youth disillusioned about the promise of the peace process and the autonomous regional government. “Recent youth interviews conducted by CCAA noted the wide tensions and disenchantments of the Moro youth brought about by media reports of wanton corruption in the BARMM,” the group said.

When he assumed office last year, BARMM interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua vowed to weed the regional government of corruption, an issue that, he said, is widely reported by the people to his office.

Before the March 28 ambush, the Inquirer monitored a spate of gun attacks in Maguindanao del Sur since January, the most serious of which was the one against Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad Ampatuan on Jan. 17, using a rocket-propelled grenade.