7 dead as soldiers get dragged into feud among Maguindanao groups
COTABATO CITY–A feud between two armed groups in Parang town, Maguindanao del Norte province, came to a head on Friday, dragging government security forces in the clashes that resulted in seven deaths.
According to Col. Christopher Panapan, chief investigator of the regional police office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, clashes erupted between the group of a certain Tamano Aragasi and that of former Moro rebels under a one Commander Macmod and one Commander Bayam, in the coastal village of Tuca-Maror on Bongo Island, on Friday morning.
Reports about this incident prompted the deployment of joint forces of the police and soldiers of the Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT-2).
While the government troops were heading to Bongo Island around 1 p.m., they were met with gunfire by three armed men on board a motorized banca, triggering skirmishes along the coast of Tagudtungan village, also on Bongo Island.
Bodies recovered
The Marines recovered three bodies and took them to a funeral parlor in Parang town. The soldiers also seized their firearms and boat.
In another boat, the soldiers also reported four slain armed men. They failed to recover their remains as the boat sank.
Panapan said the unidentified armed men wore military fatigues with markings said to be similar with the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed wing of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that is in the process of being decommissioned, in keeping with a 2014 peace deal with the government.
Two more motorized boats were recovered containing weapons and ammunition that have yet to be documented.
Amid the heat of the exchange of gunfire, several motorboats were also observed to have fled to the coasts of Matanog in Maguindanao del Norte and Malabang in Lanao del Sur province.
Panapan said the police and the Marines were on heightened alert for possible retaliation from groups allied with the slain gunmen.
