Alleged members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) occupied a portion of the market in Maguindanao and left after around six hours after a dialogue with local officials Saturday.

Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar, 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said based on statements of civilians around 80 armed members of BIFF Karialan Faction occupied the market at Poblacion Datu Paglas around 4 am.

"That (80 BIFF) is the estimate of the civilian who saw them in the area, but we do not confirm this number, because based on our assessment they are not that big," he said.

"They went to the market, threatened the civilians and took some food. They were trapped and temporarily occupied the area when they saw the presence of the soldiers and police," he added.

Baldomar said a short firefight occurred when the bandits fired upon the civilian commuters trapped in the national highway.

"We have a strict instruction from higher authorities that as much as possible to have peaceful resolution of the situation, there was an exchange of fire when our civilian commuters in one part of the highway was fired upon by the armed group. We retaliated for us to be able to pull out and protect the civilians," he said.

He said no civilians, soldiers and policemen were hurt.

Baldomar said the bandits withdrew from the market after a dialogue with the local government unit (LGU) officials.

"We have successfully evacuated the civilians, and we let the LGU engage and have dialogue with the bandit group to peacefully resolve the situation. We temporarily closed the national highway for the safety of our community," he said.

Baldomar said around 10 am the military were able to recover the part of the market that was threatened by the BIFF.

''But we're still conducting a clearing operation because when we cleared the national highway we had recovered four improvised explosive devices," he added. Robina Asido/DMS