Security beefed up in Maguindanao village wracked by clan warfare

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato—The authorities have sent more soldiers and policemen to a village in Maguindanao to prevent an escalation of pre-election violence that left eight people dead in two battles between two warring clans on Wednesday alone.

Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, Maguindanao police director, said the fighting in the village of Bagoinged in Pagalungan showed that the Oct. 28 barangay (village) elections there might not take place if security was not adequately beefed up.

Jocson said he already ordered the Pagalungan police to field additional peacekeepers to Bagoinged and the neighboring village of Kudal, where  violence was also reported last week, to ensure that Monday’s balloting will push through there without much problem.

At least 30 soldiers and 20 policemen were deployed in Bagoinged as of Thursday.

Eight persons were killed when members of the Andoy and Sanday clans clashed in Bagoinged twice on Wednesday.

Capt. Tony Bulao of the 602nd Infantry Brigade said the first clash broke out at 2 a.m. on Wednesday and forced some 400 families to leave their homes.

According to Bulao armed men under Commander Bhuto Sanday of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and another commander identified only as Bigkog swooped down on Bagoinged, fired on some houses and demanded Mokamad Andoy, a former village chair seeking to regain the position in Monday’s elections, to show himself. A relative of Sanday is running against Andoy.

Andoy and his followers fired back and killed four of the attackers, Bulao said. They fled toward the  adjacent town of Pikit in North Cotabato but returned at 9 a.m. and engaged Andoy’s men in another battle, he added.

Bulao said four more attackers were killed while four of Andoy’s men were injured.

Wednesday’s incident was the latest attempt by the Sanday clan to take Andoy in, Bulao said.

On Thursday last week, the same group also strafed houses in Bagoinged but Andoy was away at the time.

Bulao said the long-standing feud between the Sanday and Andoy clans was exacerbated by their election rivalry.