Cotabato family feud displaces 1,700

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ALEOSAN, North Cotabato—About 1,700 people have been displaced by an armed conflict triggered by a family feud in a remote village in the borders of this town and Carmen, also in North Cotabato, officials said on Monday.

Mayor Loreto Cabaya said the conflict did not happen in Aleosan but in the adjacent village of Tonganon which is part of Carmen.

“Nevertheless, we extend assistance to the displaced families from nearby villages who flocked to Barangay Lawili which is part of Aleosan,” Cabaya told reporters. “We recognize no boundaries when extending emergency assistance.”

Cabaya said the number of affected families now housed in Barangay Lawili had dwindled as many of those who fled when conflict broke out on Friday have returned home.

As of Sunday, the number of affected families was at 287.

Peacekeeping

This after the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion deployed peacekeeping forces in Tonganon and 40th Infantry Battalion sent soldiers in Barangay Lawili.

The conflict in Tonganon was triggered by a long-standing family feud involving members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Cabaya said the warring families were actually related by blood and by affinity.

Military sources said the families were locked in a feud as to who has control over a vast track of agricultural lands in Barangay Tonganon.

They belonged to a separate Moro rebel organization but the conflict, which started Friday dawn, was not an organizational conflict between MILF and MNLF.

Citing police reports, Cabaya said one follower of MNLF Commander Tiu Minanimbong was hurt while a follower of a certain Commander Tarzan of the MILF was killed.

The MILF has sent emissaries to pacify its forces in the village of Tonganon so the affected families can return home. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao