By Roy Ramos & Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Philippine troops have seized a makeshift bomb factory belonging to a breakaway Muslim rebel group in southern Maguindanao province, the military said Monday.
Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said in a press statement that troops successfully captured the bomb-making facility during an offensive Sunday against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Explaining that 18 houses were found in the camp, she said the structures are “believed to be occupied by armed lawless groups before the military's operation."
While the BIFF members were able to escape the camp, according to Petinglay, they left behind bomb-making equipment and material such as mortar fuses, ammonium nitrate, blasting caps and wires.
Col. Melquiades Feliciano, 601st Infantry Brigade commander, told the state-run Philippine News Agency that the encampment was owned by Mohammad Tambako, a BIFF leader who is allegedly sheltering a militant believed to have escaped a Jan. 25 raid that left 44 police commandos dead.
Filipino bomb-maker Basit Usman was reportedly wounded in the operation that killed one of Southeast Asia’s most wanted militants, Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir -- alias Marwan.
Meanwhile, the Philippines’ justice department said Monday it might file charges against those found responsible for the burning last week of the hut where Marwan reportedly died in Mamasapano township.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told the GMA network’s DZBB radio that the culprits might face charges of obstruction of justice, amid an ongoing probe into the incident and suspicions that it may have aimed at covering up evidence.
The BIFF broke away from the Philippines’ one-time largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in 2008 and rejected a preliminary peace agreement the MILF signed with the government in 2012.
It had vowed to continue the fight for full independence for southern Mindanao island as it disagrees with the MILF's acceptance of autonomy.
The suspected involvement of the MILF -- which signed a peace deal with the government in March last year -- in the Jan. 25 raid had threatened to derail the peace process.
