BANGSAMORO FREEDOM FIGHTERS

The term "Bangsamoro" literally meansMoro Nation. It has always referred to

Muslims, with the word Moro taken from the Spanish for Muslim (Moor). The Moro
National Liberation Front [MNLF] signed a peace pact with government in 1996 but
some of the members later left the group and formed the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front [MILF]. The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters is a breakaway group that
has been disowned by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The 300-strong
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters [BIFF] is headed by foreign-trained guerrilla
Omra Ameril Kato, a former MILF commander who is opposed to the peace
negotiations between government and the MILF. The BIFF broke away from the
mainstream Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2008 after the botched signing
of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). Headed by
Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, the group is considered responsible for the majority of
attacks in the province of Maguindanao. The BIFF is displaying its capabilities to
create a full-scale conflict and undermine efforts to bring permanent peace in the
Southern Philippines, particularly in Central Mindanao where BIFF and MILF base
their largest forces. The radical group, which vowed to not settle for anything but an
independent Muslim state, simultaneously attacked power facilities and the Armys
1st Mechanized Brigade military camps and detachments in five towns in the
provinces of Maguindanao and North Cotabato in 2012.