AMPATUAN, MAGUINDANAO DEL SUR — At least nine people died and more than a hundred families were displaced in villages in Maguindanao del Sur and Cotabato provinces following the clashes that erupted days before and during Christmas Day among former fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), locked in bitter conflict against each other.
Of the nine fatalities, four were killed on Christmas Day, when the group of Kadafy Bundula, commander of the MILF 105th base command, clashed with that of Hamza Sangki Kindo, commander of the 118th base command in Barangay Kapinpilan of Ampatuan town in Maguindanao del Sur at 9 a.m., said Police Col. Roel Sermese, Maguindanao del Sur police director.
‘Rido’
Sermese said the two groups had been locked in a family feud, locally called “rido,” which has been going on for years.
Maj. Saber Balogan, civil-military operations chief of the Philippine Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade (IB) based in Ampatuan, said the firefight lasted for two hours and stopped only about noon when the MILF and government ceasefire panels, the police and military authorities arrived to intervene and separated the warring families.
Most leaders of the MILF are now officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government after entering into a peace agreement with the government.
Many of the former MILF fighters, most of who have been integrated into mainstream society or have applied as members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, have surrendered their high-powered armaments to authorities but there are still groups who kept their firearms.
Cotabato clash
Balogan said the fighting also forced at least 100 families to flee their village and seek safer grounds. They have been temporarily housed at Barangay Kapinpilan’s covered court.
Police said the Ampatuan “infighting” came a day after five men were killed, three of them MILF members, in a clash sparked by another rido in Barangay Lagunde, a Bangsamoro territory in Pikit town of Cotabato province.
Involved in the skirmishes were armed men led by Sindatok Karim, chair of Barangay Lagunde, and another group led by Basit Nando, alias Commander Abu Sabaya, a subcommander of the MILF 118th base command.
Karim’s relatives who were former MILF fighters were providing security for him and other village officials of Barangay Lagunde against the other group, police reports said.
Police Maj. Arvin John Cambang, Pikit municipal police chief, said Karim and other village officials were laying down limestone on a village road project in Sitio Edzap on Dec. 23 when Nando’s group arrived and opened fire, triggering an hourlong firefight.
Among those who died were village councilman Malik Karim and Sammy Nawal Salik, a Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) member, both from Karim’s group; and Kena Abdillah, Omar Abdillah and a still to be identified person from Nando’s group.
Injured were BPAT members Saddam Salaban and Karnain Esmael, both residents of Barangay Lagunde, and were identified to be with Karim.
Grudge
Lagunde, which formerly belonged to Pikit town, is already one of the 63 villages in Mindanao that formed the Special Geographic Area of the BARMM, following the February 2019 plebiscite when residents voted to join the Bangsamoro region.
Cambang said Karim’s group claimed they were merely working on a barangay road project when the group of Nando arrived and opened fire. But Nando told the police Karim’s group had entered his area of operation without coordination.
Nando has been nursing a grudge against Karim because he suspected that Karim’s followers were behind the murder of two of his relatives in November this year, according to Cambang.
Several families have fled to nearby villages while soldiers from the Army’s 90th IB and personnel from the Police Mobile Force Battalion 14 were in the area to serve as peacekeepers to prevent hostilities from escalating.
READ: Thousands flee as fighting erupts in Maguindanao del Sur