Officials intervene to avoid looming clan war in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Local officials in Kabacan town on Wednesday started trying to amicably end the tension between two big families whose leaders were killed on Monday in a gun duel.

Jerry Manalo, chair of Barangay Aringgay and his longtime adversary, businessman Clemente Molina, killed each other using caliber .45 pistols in an incident that heightened the animosity between their families.

Superintendent Jordine Maribojo, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said Molina and Manalo died from gunshot wounds sustained in the duel, which sent people in the scene of the encounter running for their lives.

The two reportedly met at a busy spot in the town proper of Kabacan and immediately challenged each other to a gunfight.

Molina opened fire first hitting Manalo in the chest. Manalo returned fire and felled Molina with a single shot in the head.

Manalo eventually died the same day while being treated of his gunshot wound in a hospital.

Kabacan Mayor Herlo Guzman Jr., chair of the municipal peace and order council, sent emissaries to convince the Manalo and Molina families to refrain from retaliating to prevent any escalation of hostilities between them.

Guzman tasked Maribojo to try to reconcile the two clans with the help of municipal elders and religious leaders.