The battle was fought in advance of U.S. landings by Philippine Commonwealth military forces and the recognized Christian and Muslim guerrilla fighters against Imperial Japanese Army troops.

Japanese forces, numbering about 1,500 men of the 166th Independent Infantry Battalion, in the Malabang-Cotabato area were part of the 100th Division garrison troops, approximately one third Koreans, that were demoralized by poor officers and a defeatist attitude.

[3] Beginning in early March 1945 part of Colonel Wendell Fertig's 10th Military District guerrilla force, the guerrilla 108th Division began attacking the Japanese garrison at Malabang with some air support from U.S. Marine Corps and United States Army Air Forces aircraft.

[4] The elements of the 108th directly involved were the Expeditionary Battalion, part of the 105th Infantry and the Moro Maranao Militia Force that was under the operational control of the 108th.

[2] After confirmation by Marine air reconnaissance previous plans were changed so that one battalion of the 24th Division assault forces of Task Group 78.2 would go ashore at Malabang with the rest going directly to Parang.