The Philippine Online Chronicles

Amid the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) extended offer for renegade leader Ameril Umbra Kato to rejoin them, Kato said he would continue to pursue for independence with his newly formed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM).

BIFM spokesperson Abu Misri Mama said their breakaway group and their armed wing Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) will not secede.

“We are happy with our group now. We will maintain and stay with BIFM. This is the organization designed by our late chairman, Salamat Hashim,” Mama said, quoting Kato, but added “Let’s wait and see what will happen on Sept. 26.”

The MILF initially said they will decide on Kato’s fate after Ramadan but they failed to come out with a decision. Later, the Ulama Council, the MILF Central Committee, recommended that Kato be given “two weeks to reconsider his decision to form another armed group and return to the MILF immediately and after which, if he fails, he would be declared outside of the coverage of the peace process and the ceasefire.”

Kato had met with the Ulama members days before but the former head of MILF’s 105^th Base Command in Maguindanao refused the invitation. He said he was willing to talk to MILF chair Murad Ebrahim but only to explain his stand on the BIFM and the BIFF. Besides not wanting to go to Camp Darapanan, the MILF main base, Mama said, “Ustadz Kato cannot go anymore to them since the military is hunting him. We cannot take the risk of going to Darapanan. But he is willing to sit and talk with Murad.” However, Mama said, “It’s Chairman Murad who should come to him.”

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, chairman of the government ceasefire committee said MILF should show its influence and authority in restraining Kato.

“If this is an internal trouble, the government ceasefire committee is urging the MILF and the BIFM to resolve these ‘bloody intramurals’ as soon as possible for the sake of innocent people who are often caught in the crossfire,” he said in a statement.

In January, Kato announced the formation of the BIFF and later the BIFM as the mother organization.

He left the MILF in December last year with around 1,000 of his followers because he did not like the way the MILF was handling the peace talks.

He is also said to have left because the group allegedly did not help him while the military was hunting him down in connection with the attacks he led in North Cotabato in 2008.

Mama said Kato was not threatened by the MILF deadline.