By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
One day after the death of its founder and leader, a breakaway group from the country's one-time largest Moro rebel outfit has named a successor.
A GMA News report Wednesday quoted a Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) spokesman as saying that Sheik Esmael Abubakar - alias Kumander Bungos, the group's vice chairman for political affairs - would succeed Ameril Umra Kato who died of a stroke Tuesday.
"The group decided to have the 40-year-old Abubakar take over Kato's post," Abu Misry Mama said, adding that the BIFF founder was buried at 9 a.m. (GMT0200) Wednesday in Mindanao.
Mama described Kato’s death as a big loss, adding that - contrary to Philippines army claims - the group would not become weaker without its founder.
New chief Abubakar is reported to have studied in the Middle East, is an expert in Sharia law, and taken the title of sheik before serving as a brigade commander for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), from which the BIFF splintered in 2008.
The separation occurred after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional a peace agreement signed in 2008 by the MILF and the government of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Kato went on lead attacks against the goverment in Mindanao, one of which saw 44 police commandos killed in the south on Jan. 25 in what became known as the Mamasapano clash.
One time masters MILF on Wednesday urged followers of Kato to return to the MILF fold following his death, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Many, if not all of them, were MILF members.
The Inquirer report added that MILF’s chief negotiator in an ongoing peace deal with the government, Mohagher Iqbal, had sent a letter of condolence to the BIFF.
As part of the peace deal, the MILF and government both continue to push for the passage of a proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law that would lead to the creation of a Bangsamoro autonomous region.
While the MILF has agreed to meet the government halfway and accede to an autonomous region to represent the Moro people’s right to self-determination, Kato and the BIFF had continued to demand a separate state for the Moros.
The military launched an “all-out offensive” against BIFF in February in response to the Jan. 25 battle which left 44 Special Action Force police, 17 MILF members and five civilians dead.
The suspected involvement of the MILF in the deaths of the commandos had threatened to derail the peace process.
