Run! Run! … Hurry Up…! Siyakaren pagagayas ka talagoy ka!!! Boom!!! After hearing a loud explosion not far from my side, I noticed that my fellow was bleeding and dying, and my hearing had not yet recovered from the deafening blast of the mortar in our fort. My resistance, however, persisted. I wanted to save my wounded comrade, but I couldn't because the soldiers who continued to advance on our position were so strong that I was forced to abandon my bloody pal. Nevertheless, I also fired at the soldiers who were chasing us until I was able to completely escape from them. I ran quickly to avoid being followed. Even though the forest was dense and the path was mountainous and difficult, I didn't stop running to get away from them. When I got away from the pursuing soldiers and heard no more shots, I stopped running because I knew the soldiers couldn't catch up to me because I was far away from them. I had to stop running due to exhaustion. I hadn't even realized that my companions had gone. I was so exhausted and hungry from running away from the soldiers. Because I was so tired, I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep. I drifted off to a massive tree that had served as my protection and hideout for a few days.
These are just some of the incidents that 'Alyas Vanguard' experienced when he was still an active member of the Freedom Fighters, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). In 2008, Ameril Umbra Kato left the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group because he did not agree with the MILF's acceptance of autonomy rather than full independence. This happened after the Philippine Supreme Court negated the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain signed by the Philippine government and the MILF. Kato led a group of fighters and founded the BIFF in December 2010. He said that he has 5,000 fighters, but the government says he only has 300. In August 2011, the MILF identified Kato's group as a break-away group and declared the BIFF a "lost command".
Alyas Vanguard is an Uztadz who teaches children lessons about the Islamic religion. He is married and has children living peacefully in their community in Maguindanao. But his life situation changed after he joined the freedom fighters. At first, he was only invited to teach the Islamic religion. His food was free, as was his fare to go to the place where the BIFFs were gathering and collecting additional forces. He didn't realize that the BIFF gradually indoctrinated him to become a radical and converted him into an extremist individual.
In 2018, he formally joined the extremist group and became a member of BIFF. They have no formal training within their organization except for handling guns. "We are not required to go through intensive training as long as you know how to use a firearm as well as how to assemble and disassemble your weapon," Alias Vanguard explained further. They were taught how to hold and shoot a firearm for twelve hours. They were also shown how to clean their weapons properly. After that, they would eventually become regular members of the liberation movement.