COTABATO CITY (PNA) – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim said on Friday, Sept. 2, that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has joined the hunt for the lawless group behind the ambush-slay of two police officers in Maguindanao.

"We are helping in hunting down the BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) men who were tagged, as per our investigation, to be behind the ambush,” Ebrahim said in a radio interview.

The MILF, whose central committee is led by Ebrahim, earlier signed separate peace pacts with the government – the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

The peace agreements paved the way for the legislation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which was to become the charter of the BARMM that started operation in 2019.

The BIFF, meanwhile, is a breakaway faction of the MILF operating in Maguindanao.

The group was blamed for the ambush-slay of Lt. Reynaldo Samson, Ampatuan police chief, and his aide-driver, Corporal Salihudin Endab, on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

“Our information showed that the BIFF, who are allies of the wanted person the police were to arrest, was behind the bloody ambush. We are hunting them,” Ebrahim said.

Samson’s group was about to arrest Kamir Kambal, allegedly a BIFF member who has warrants of arrest for frustrated murder, when they were ambushed in remote Barangay Kapinpilan.

Under the 1997 agreement on the cessation of hostilities between the government and the MILF, the MILF was to help government forces in arresting fugitives hiding in its areas or communities.

“We can only help, we cannot arrest these wanted persons in our areas because we have no police power,” Ebrahim said.

“Coordination mechanism is part of the peace process. If there are wanted persons in MILF identified areas, a joint government forces-MILF operation can be done,” he said.

The coordination mechanism, he said, was to prevent misencounters between MILF and government forces.