A leading rebel commander in Mindanao has claimed it was his expulsion from an 'official' rebel group that prompted him to start his own rival band of outlaws. Sheikh Ameril Umra Kato, former base commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said yesterday it was not his choice to leave them but the present MILF leadership had declared him a renegade. He has now set up the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), which, he said, aims to continue the advocacies of MILF founder Hashim Salamat, who died in 2003. Kato, 65, was born in Datu Piang, Maguindanao and educated in a unversity in Saudi Arabia. He returned to Philippines in 1985 and started sharing his knowledge on religion by giving lectures to groups in MILF camp. Kato claimed BIFM has at least 5,000 followers and issued a challenge to both the government, seeking peace talks for many years, and MILF. “If they want to discuss issues, then we welcome them. If they come to take arms against us or provoke us, then we will be ready for them,” Kato said. However, he also claimed he wrote to the MILF central committee and the office of the chief of staff before his “expulsion”, informing them of his separation from the MILF and his formation of the BIFM.