COTABATO CITY – Troops manning checkpoint in the southern Philippines were told Tuesday to stay vigilant and alert after an unidentified man abandoned his motorcycle which later caught fire after seeing a military roadblock in Maguindanao’s Talayan.
Major Arvin John Encinas, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, said the man escaped and left his motorcycle upon seeing troops inspecting vehicles passing at the checkpoint.
He said the motorcycle was abandoned in front of a government school 100 meters away from the checkpoint and minutes later it burst into flames. He said the motorcycle was burned, but intact.
“We still do not know why the motorcycle caught fire. We are still investigating this incident, but the driver who remains unidentified avoided the checkpoint and made a sudden U-turn and abandoned his motorcycle,” Encinas told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner by phone from his headquarters in Maguindanao, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
Encinas said troops are in heightened alert and security is tight in the province because of the on-going military operation against the pro-ISIS group called Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
Troops have been battling BIFF forces in Maguindanao’s Sultan sa Barongis town since last week and had captured a camp, destroying bunkers and foxholes in the village of Tugal.
The military operation involved air and ground forces, backed by a battery of canons, against the BIFF under Salahudin Hassan, according to Major General Cirilito Sobejana, the division commander.
The offensives against pro-ISIS groups was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte following the January 27 cathedral bombings in Sulu’s Jolo town by an Indonesian couple that had killed 23 people and left 95 others wounded. (Mindanao Examiner)
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