COTABATO CITY - Hostilities between two powerful Muslim clans in Buluan, Maguindanao have escalated, trapping innocent civilians in the crossfire, authorities said.
Police and provincial officials have tried to pacify the feuding Paglas and Mangudadatu families, but have failed to convince the leaders of both sides to settle the conflict amicably.
Both families, though related by blood, are locked in a deep-seated animosity that stemmed from political misunderstandings and squabbles over control of patches of land in Buluan and Datu Paglas towns.
Army Capt. Lino Aso, spokesman of the 6th Infantry Division here, said the latest skirmishes erupted the other night when armed followers of the two clans pounded each other's position with M-60 machineguns, assault rifles and shoulder-fired M-79 grenades.
"We have very reliable information that there were fatalities on both sides, but we have no way, as of this time, of getting the identities of these people because leaders of both clans could not yet be reached," Aso said.
Local sources have confirmed that more than a dozen people were wounded in the new hostilities, which lasted for six hours.
Three other persons were killed in sporadic clashes over the weekend at the border of Buluan and Datu Paglas, according to Inspector Mokamad Sebangan, Buluan's police chief.
The initial skirmishes also left seven villagers, mostly children, wounded, Sebangan said.
Maguindanao Gov. Zacaria Candao told radio station dxMY that politics could be behind the renewed hostilities between the Paglas and Mangudadatu families.
A local court, according to Candao, ruled recently that a member of the Paglas family won Buluan's mayoralty race in 1998, overturning the poll body's proclamation of Datu Toto Mangudadatu as mayor shortly after the elections.
The Paglas and Mangudadatu clans are known to have armed supporters in their bailiwicks, mostly vote-rich barangays.