Clan war erupts anew in Maguindanao
COTABATO CITY—Fighting among armed warring groups of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) erupted anew in Maguindanao del Sur on Sunday, killing three and injuring three others.
A civilian was also wounded when hit by a stray bullet during the firefight and was now confined at Maguindanao Provincial Hospital in Datu Hofer town, according to Police Lt. Col. Jopy Ventura, spokesperson for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Police Regional Office.
Police Maj. Guiseppe Tamayo, Maguindanao del Sur police spokesperson, said the bloodbath started when a convoy of vehicles loaded with followers of Commander Malibuteng of the MILF 128th Base Command was ambushed by a group identified with Commander Kagi Gani Adam of the former rebel group’s 118th Base Command along the border of Mamasapano and Shariff Saydona Mustapha towns in the province.
100 empty shells
As a result, three followers of Commander Malibuteng, known only by their aliases “Ares,” “Alimasing” and “Obama,” were killed.
In the exchange of fire, three followers of Commander Adam were injured and had been undergoing treatment in an undisclosed hospital, Tamayo added.
Police report showed that Malibuteng’s men were on board three minivans heading to Barangay Pembalakan, Mamasapano town, when ambushed at Barangay Linantangan, Shariff Saydona Mustapha by followers of Commander Adam.
A two-hour firefight ensued, sending civilians scampering for safety as both sides were using high-powered firearms, such as machine guns and mortars.
Ventura said the warring field commanders of the MILF had been locked in a family feud, or “rido,” for years.
Responding personnel from the Maguindanao del Sur police office and its Scene of the Crime Operations team recovered more than 100 empty shells of various calibers of firearms at the ambush site.
Other incidents
Tamayo said Maguindanao police director Col. Sultan Salman Sapal had already alerted the government and the MILF ceasefire panel to mediate and settle the misunderstanding of the warring MILF commanders.
This was not the first time that MILF leaders and their followers engaged in skirmishes that had resulted in deaths believed to be traced to rido.
Only on July 21, Commander Buntok Utap of the MILF’s 106th Base Command was killed in Barangay Panadtaban of Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao del Sur, barely a week after he signed a military-brokered rido settlement with another MILF leader, Norudin Utto.
In the peace deal initiated by the Army’s 601st Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Edgar Catu, Utap and Utto had agreed to stop attacking each other and to prevent armed skirmishes in the future that had previously forced civilians to flee their homes.
On July 5, a gun battle between feuding MILF commanders displaced 70 families along the borders of Maguindanao del Sur, the Bangsamoro’s Special Geographic Area (SGA) and Cotabato province.
The feuding factions—led by Commanders Karis Bationg and Cob Silongan of the MILF’s 105th Base Command on one side and by Datu Renz Tukuran, a newly elected town mayor of Nabalawag in SGA, on the other—agreed to reconcile and pledged to end their rido after they were called inside the 6th ID headquarters for mediation on July 16.
On March 2 this year, the eve of the fasting month of Ramadan, firefight broke out in the town of Tugunan in the SGA of the Bangsamoro between forces of Commander Kandotoy Abdullah of the MILF national guard and Apang Abdulkarim of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, prompting people to flee their homes. Abdullah and Abdulkarim were also locked in a long-standing clan war.
In October last year, fighting triggered by land dispute between Datu Alonto Sultan of the MILF 105th Base Command and the group of Commander Ikot Dandua and Commander Bawse of the MILF’s 128th and 129th Base Commands, also ended with 10 people dead.
The fighting, which happened in the remote village of Kilangan in Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur, also triggered the evacuation of residents fleeing the fighting.
Also last October, around 300 families, or 1,500 people, fled their homes along the border of Aleosan town of Cotabato province and the newly created SGA town of Tugunan town following skirmishes that broke out between two warring MILF members in the area.
The fighting was between the members of the Makasasa and Mangelen clans, who had been embroiled in a long-standing feud.
