Armed men harass North Cotabato village; 200 families displaced

NORTH COTABATO - Some 200 families abandoned their homes located in disputed agricultural enclaves in Tulunan town that gunmen attacked and plundered over the weekend, local officials said.

Senior Inspector Ronnie Cordero, chief of the Tulunan municipal police, said the atrocity, perpetrated by a certain Commander Musa and his men on Sunday, left a 12-year-old child wounded.

Musa and his men reportedly arrived at Barangay Popoyon in Tulunan town and, without warning, opened fire at houses and shot farmers plowing their fields nearby.

“These armed men have been harassing the villagers to drive them out of the area,” Cordero told reporters.

Musa and his followers have been asserting ownership over the farms of local peasants, in total disregard of the Torrens land titles, and government land grant records being kept by the farmers.

Musa and his men, who are ethnic Maguindanaons from nearby Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao, have been ignoring invitations for a peace dialogue with Barangay Popoyon residents and officials of the Tulunan local government unit.

Cordero said the lands that Musa's group is trying to grab are planted with coconuts, rubber, and other orchard trees that are intercropped with corn and other short-term cash crops.

Workers from the local social welfare office are now attending to the needs of the displaced families, who are presently confined in makeshift relief sites and houses of their relatives.