2 rival clans sign peace agreement in Basilan

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Two feuding clans in Lantawan town in Basilan on Thursday signed a peace covenant ending a decade-old conflict that caused a dozen fatalities on both sides.

Leaders of the heavily armed Majindi and Ibrahim families, who figured in more than a dozen encounters in years past, signed a peace agreement at the Basilan provincial police office in Isabela City, in the presence of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The settlement of the Majindi-Ibrahim clan war was jointly brokered by Hataman, Superintendent Oscar Nantes of the Basilan provincial police and Lantawan municipal officials.

Hataman is the presiding chair of the ARMM’s inter-agency regional peace and order council, which is active in resolving clan wars in the autonomous region in support of the normalization thrusts in conflict-stricken areas of Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Among the signatories to the peace covenant forged by the Majindis and Ibrahims were Julhambri and Alam, the acknowledged figureheads of the two families, respectively.

Hataman said he is thankful to Nantes for helping resolve the rido, which means clan war in most southern vernaculars, involving the Majindis and Ibrahims.

Hataman and local officials settled just two weeks ago three violent clan wars in Sumisip towns also in the island province of Basilan.