2 dead, 2 hurt in Lanao Sur family feud over Facebook posts

COTABATO CITY —Two cousins were killed while two others were badly hurt in a gunfight in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur on Sunday, November 10, sparked by a supposedly petty misunderstanding over Facebook posts. 

Brig. Gen. Romeo Jaime Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Tuesday, November 12, that local officials, Muslim religious leaders and personnel of the Balabagan Municipal Police Station are trying to settle the conflict that can affect innocent villagers.

The municipal police and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office stated in initial reports on Monday that the Maranao cousins Mandih and Nhor were killed by their own cousins in a brief exchange of gunfire in the town proper of Balabagan.

The shootout left two of their cousins involved in the gunfight, Abdul and Nash, badly wounded.

Police officials and barangay leaders asked reporters not to reveal their family names to prevent relatives in other towns in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte from taking sides and getting involved in their “rido,” which means family feud in most Moro vernaculars.

Local officials told reporters the rido between the two closely related families was triggered by exchanges of tirades on Facebook.

Relatives of the slain Mandih and Nhor from nearby areas immediately retaliated by setting on fire the pick-up truck of their killers, also closely related to them both by blood and by affinity.