Four hurt as clash of clans leads to firefight in Lanao

ILIGAN CITY–Four persons were injured when a gun battle between two warring clans erupted in Bacolod Kalawi town in Lanao del Sur on Friday, the Joint Task Force (JTF) Ranao reported on Friday.

Col. Romeo Brawner, the JTF Ranao deputy commander, said the clash between the Amanodin and Dipatuan clans took place in Barangay Gandamato in Bacolod Kalawi around 4:30 p.m.

Brawner said the clash lasted for an hour and “caused the disruption of traffic flow along the highway of said municipality.”

“Four members of the Amanodin clan were wounded,” Brawner added.

He said responding soldiers under the 65th Infantry Battalion were forced to join the fray when they were also fired upon.

He said for 15 minutes, the soldiers fired on the warring clans’ position and were “able to control the situation and ceasefire was implemented.”

Brawner said Maj. Gen. Roseller Murillo, the JTF Ranao commander, had already coordinated with the police for the conduct of law enforcement operations against those involved.

He said Murillo had vowed not to tolerate “incidents of rido” in the province, especially as martial law remains in effect in Mindanao.

Feuds involving clans were among the most serious threats to Lanao del Sur’s peace and security for years, officials said.

Then Marawi City mayor Fahad Salic had proposed that officials help settle feuds among Maranao families, either amicably or through the judicial process, and not resort to violence.

In some cases, politics would become the catalyst for feuds in the province, but oftentimes, it would stem from the defense of one’s honor.

Among the incidents attributed to rido was the 2015 ambush in Lumbaca-Unayan town, which killed seven people and injured 11 others.

The Lumbaca-Unayan ambush that killed members of the Ra-ado family came about four years after clan members agreed to bury the hatchet with members of a rival family during a “covenant for peace” facilitated by top provincial officials and Maranao elders. /jpv