Village chief, MILF leader forge truce in North Cotabato – police

COTABATO CITY – A clan war involving a barangay (village chairman) and Moro rebel commander erupted in a remote village in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato on Monday and Tuesday, sending about 200 families fleeing, officials said.

But a quick intervention by the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ceasefire panels brought the warring MILF field commander and village official to the negotiating table, said Supt. Bernard Tayong, North Cotabato police spokesperson.

Involved in the clan war that already claimed the lives of two persons and wounded two others, were Abdula Abdulsalam Maraguer, village chair of Barangay Burikain in Pigcawayan and MILF 105th base command leader Kandil Sampiano alias Commander Kandil.

“They were locked in family feud (rido) and they traded shots from Monday until Tuesday morning,” Tayong told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Both sides suffered one fatality each.

The conflict forced some 200 Moro families or about 5,000 persons to flee to nearby villages.

“A ceasefire has been reached at 3 p.m. Tuesday between the warring clans,” Senior Insp. Arnel Melocotones, the town’s police chief, said, adding that Pigcawayan Mayor Jose Roquero also initiated a similar dialogue.

However, the displaced families refused to go home, Tayong said.

On Monday morning, the group of Commander Kandil ambushed Maraguer that left his escort John Paul Maraguer wounded (the initial report was that John Paul was killed.) Both were riding on a motorbike.

In the afternoon, Maraguer led an assault on the location of Commander Kandil, triggering a five-hour sporadic firefight.

Melocotones said the conflict was not a fight involving the MILF as an organization. “It was purely personal, family feud,” he said.

Last week, one of Commander Kandil’s relatives was also killed in an attack allegedly by Maraquer’s group that also included militiamen.

Commander Kandil vowed to avenge the death of his follower.

Tayong said when a dialogue was called by the local government of Pigcawayan and the ceasefire panels, both readily agreed to an amicable settlement. SFM