Philippine police commandos deployed to southern towns after Daesh attack
Also, Philippine Army-local govt cooperation expanded to encourage more terrorists to surrender.
LANAO DEL SUR: The Philippine National Police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) last week reportedly deployed four companies of its Special Action Force (SAF) to augment existing security forces maintaining law and order after recent terror attacks by Daesh in Lanao del Sur province.
BARMM police chief Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza led the Jan.16 send-off ceremony at Camp Brigadier General Salipada K Pendatun, Parang municipality, in Maguindanao del Norte province for the 4th Special Action Battalion, Special Action Force.
Of the four SAF companies, the 45th Special Action Company troopers will be stationed inside Marawi City’s Mindanao State University (MSU) to secure the academic institution following the Dec. 3 bombing of its Mohammad Ali Dimaporo gymnasium that killed four people and wounded 50 others.
Nobleza said he hoped that with the deployment of more troops, the bombing incident would not happen again, The Inquirer reported.
Police have identified the suspects in the MSU gymnasium bombing as members of the pro-Daesh Maute terror group and Dawlah Islamiyah, an umbrella term for groups aligned with Daesh.
“There are gaps in terms of security in Lanao del Sur that is why we need to fill in,” Nobleza said during the send-off ceremonies for about 160 SAF troopers.
Aside from the 45th Special Action Company, the 41st, 43rd, 44th Special Action Companies were also sent to the towns of Malabang, Masiu and Marantao.
Police regard the remnants of the Maute terrorist group that laid siege sections of the Marawi City in 2017, triggering the five-month fighting with government troops, and the Dawlah Islamiya as the biggest security threats in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City.
“With the presence of SAF, the security in Lanao del Sur will improve,” Nobleza said. “When the security improves, there will be economic activities and the community will also improve,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6ID) and local government units are reportedly to expand cooperation in securing the surrender of more local terrorists to sustain the peace spreading around now in potential investment destinations in provinces under its jurisdiction.
Two provincial governors, Emmylou Taliño Mendoza of Cotabato and Reynaldo Tamayo of South Cotabato, are among local officials who assured to help reintroduce to mainstream society former members of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the communist insurgent group, the New People’s Army, PhilStar reported.
Major Gen. Alex Rillera, the 6ID commander, said that they have intensified reaching out to the few remaining members of the Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF to make them understand that while Army units in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat provinces are open to terrorists wishing to surrender.
“These efforts of the 6ID, the provincial governors and the mayors are meant to sustain the noticeable improvements now in the economy of the provinces and cities being secured by units of our division,” Rillera said.
Rillera said Tamayo, chairperson of the South Cotabato provincial peace and order council, helped the 6th ID reintegrate to the local communities almost 80 Dawlah Islamiya, BIFF and NPA members from across his province who had surrendered in batches in 2023.
Tamayo said that his administration is also keen on inviting local and foreign capitalists to put up viable agricultural projects in hinterlands that 6ID had cleared from NPA presence in the past three years.
In its yearend report dispatched to media outfits in central Mindanao last month, 6ID said its units had neutralised 535 Dawlah Islamiya, BIFF and NPA members in field engagements last year. The report was corroborated by mayors in towns where soldiers and members of the three groups figured in deadly gunfights.
The 6ID, the Region 12 and the Bangsamoro regional police offices and local government units in central Mindanao had worked out the surrender of 914 Dawlah Islamiya, BIFF and NPA members in the past 12 months.
Mendoza, who is chairperson of the Regional Development Council-12, said she and her constituent-mayors are glad with the fragile peace now in the 63 Bangsamoro villages in Cotabato that are inside Region 12, but are administratively under BARMM.
“We have seen the surrender of so many enemies of the government from these 63 [villages] in the past 24 months. These areas are now safe for big agricultural projects that can provide employment for local residents,” Mendoza said.
Meanwhile, a court in Thailand reportedly dismissed on Jan. 17 terrorism charges against 31 anti-government protest leaders who occupied Bangkok’s international airports in 2008.
The so-called “Yellow Shirt” movement took control of the city’s two airports for more than a week—causing international headlines, stranding hundreds of thousands, and ending only with the dismissal of the then-prime minister, AFP reported.
“The (Criminal) court said the protest by all 31 defendants was peaceful and within their rights and freedoms,” lawyer Praphan Koonmee, among the defendants, told local media.
Backed by Bangkok’s elites, the People’s Alliance for Democracy—as the group was also known—halted their action after a ruling by the Constitutional Court dismissed then prime minister Somchai Wongsawat from office.
Somchai was the brother-in-law of billionaire former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, a controversial figure loathed by many Bangkok elites who had himself been ousted in a 2006 coup.