Over 40 Moro families displaced by clan war
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — More than 40 impoverished Moro families have fled to safer areas after two feuding groups, locked in a rido (clan war) and armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, clashed three times in Barangay Barungis, in the newly created Bangsamoro Ligawasan town in Cotabato province on October 22.
Rido is a generic term for clan conflict in most Moro and other Southern Mindanao vernaculars.
Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, commander of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, and Maj. Gen. Donald Gumiran, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, told reporters on Friday that officials of the 40th Infantry Battalion and local executives in Ligawasan had, through initial backchannel efforts, repositioned the two armed groups away from each other. However, evacuees remain reluctant to return to their villages for fear of renewed hostilities.
The gunfights that forced residents to abandon their homes involved the rival groups of Taib Sampulna and Mackly Adam, both identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The two groups are embroiled in deep-seated political disputes and territorial control issues in Ligawasan — one of eight Bangsamoro towns in Cotabato’s Special Geographic Area that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliament created last year through separate legislative measures.
Municipal officials and traditional Moro leaders said last Wednesday’s clashes in Sitio Tuka, Barangay Barungis, left one fatality on each side and wounded four others.
“We will help bring the displaced Moro families back to their villages,” Bunayog said.
He added that Ligawasan Mayor Ismael Mama, along with barangay leaders and 40th IB officials, are working together to broker peace between the Sampulna and Adam groups.
Mama said he has sent emissaries to both sides to convince them to reconcile and coexist peacefully in Barangay Barungis.
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