3 slain in political feud in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Three men were killed in a gunbattle between local government officials in the violence-ridden southern Philippines, police said Sunday.

A village chairman and his men exchanged fire with a councillor and his followers in the southern island of Jolo on Saturday, with the three shot dead men before police arrived on the scene.

The two officials and their surviving aides fled and are in hiding, said the regional police head, Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag.

He said the officials were on opposing sides of a bitter political rivalry in the lawless island, where Muslim extremists and kidnapping gangs are also active.

“This all stems from a dispute in politics and the councillor and the chairman follow different sides,” Latag said.

Such bloody feuds are frequent between prominent Muslim clans in the southern Philippines where disputes over land or political power often turn violent.

Earlier this month, at least 14 people were killed as followers of two Muslim rebel commanders engaged in a series of battles in the south over a parcel of land.

In the worst case of political violence, members of an influential Muslim clan are being tried for murdering 57 people in the south in 2009 allegedly to keep a rival from challenging them in local elections.