MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters burned on Sunday morning 12 houses in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao that had been left behind by fleeing villagers.
The owners of the houses in Sitio Macon in Barangay Limpongo had evacuated to safer areas three days before due to attacks by BIFF bandits.
BIFF gunmen first burned three houses near Mt. Firis, a sacred site for Tedurays in the border of Datu Hofer and Datu Unsay towns, on December 25.
More than 200 Teduray families have fled to safer areas following a series of harassments by BIFF members trying to force them out of their tribal communities in hinterlands surrounded by Maguindanao's Datu Hoffer, Shariff Aguak, Datu Unsay and Datu Saudi towns.
Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the Army-led Joint Task Force Central, on Sunday said the arsonists who attacked Sitio Macon hurriedly escaped when personnel of the 57th Infantry Battalion were closing in.
Local officials said a nearby Army artillery base fired 105-mm howitzers at the fleeing BIFF men to flush them out.
Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello of the Maguindanao provincial police said investigators are now trying to identify the arsonists for arrest and prosecution.
He said police have also been sent to secure makeshift evacuation sites for the villagers.
© Philstar.com A soldier walks past what’s left of the houses of ethnic Teduray villagers in Datu Unsay, Maguindanao after BIFF bandits burned them down on December 25. John Unson, file
A Teduray timuay (chieftain) said no fewer than 200 families have been displaced by BIFF incursions into their villages since Christmas Day a week ago.
"Other evacuees left their homes because they were afraid they would be harassed next," the timuay, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said in Filipino.
BIFF gunmen killed Teduray community leader Diego Dagadas last week with an improvised bomb.
Dagadas was known for being vocal against BIFF harassments of villagers in Teduray areas.
Fatima Kanakan, director of the Office on Southern Cultural Communities-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told The STAR on Saturday that she and her staff had counted 285 Teduray families in evacuation sites.
Kanakan said she is thankful to the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of ARMM and to Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu for having initially extended relief services to evacuees.
"I am hoping these security problems would come to an end soon," Kanakan said.
Mangudadatu's office had initially supplied the Teduray evacuees with more than 50 bags of rice through the provincial government's emergency response team led by Lynette Estandarte.
Hataman, chairman of the regional peace and order council, said on Sunday they will continue to provide the displaced villagers with humanitarian interventions while in evacuation sites.