Authorities eye resolution to Moro-Ilonggo feud in Kidapawan

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines -  Local officials and the police are scrambling to organize a multi-sectoral group to pacify armed ethnic Moro and Ilonggo settlers in Kidapawan City that twice figured in bloody encounters last week.

The animosity between the two groups  --- squabbling for control of patches of arable lands in a government reservation at the borders of Barangays Patadon and Amas --- escalated last week with the alleged decapitation of Moro farmer Kenti Diagao, 44, by Ilonggo peasants.

Diagao was reportedly hauling newly-harvested corn using a Carabao-drawn cart from his farm to his house when shot from behind with gauge 12 shotguns and beheaded.

Bobby Benito, executive director of the Mindanao Human Rights Action Center (MinHRAC), recommended an immediate diplomatic intervention by North Cotabato's religious and  political communities to prevent an escalation of the conflict.

The MinHRAC is involved in the civilian protection efforts of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Relatives of Diagao retaliated three days after he was killed by attacking Sitio Nazareth at the boundary of Barangays Amas and Patadon from different directions, sparking running firefights with village watchmen and armed residents.

Three barangay tanods were killed while two responding policemen, SP01 Edwin Maglate and Police Inspector Randy Apostol, were wounded in the  encounter.

The security situation in the area reportedly started to deteriorate when Moro farmers began asserting ownership, following the October 15, 2012 signing of the government and the MILF of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro, of rice and corn farms on lands separating Kidapawan City’s Barangay Amas and Patadon, where the Department of Agriculture has demonstration farms.

The disputed lands are inside a government property, which neither of the groups legally own.

Local officials on Sunday urged the joint government-MILF ceasefire committee to deploy a peacekeeping contingent between the feuding groups after learning that the attack on Sitio Nazareth was led by a Moro commander named Satar Manalundong.

Manalundong, a member of the MILF, and his men had also figured in hostilities in 2013 in North Cotabato’s Matalam town with members of the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace pact with government on Sept. 2, 1996.

Even the police director of North Cotabato, Senior Supt. Danny Peralta, had recommended an immediate intervention by the joint government-MILF ceasefire committee to stave off possible escalation of the conflict in Barangays Amas and Patadon.

The office of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza had organized a crisis committee to help the city government of Kidapawan resolve the conflict.