Schools shut as rival Moro groups face showdown
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 13:30 PM Fri Mar 3, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
The neighboring Pagalungan, Montawal and Pikit towns are under the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY -Classes in Barangay Kilangan, Pagalungan are suspended since Wednesday due to deadly gunfights between two heavily-armed Moro groups.
Local leaders in Pagalungan in Maguindanao del Sur province, about 60 kilometers from this city, have urged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose leaders are occupying key positions in the Bangsamoro government, to pacify the two groups, both identified with the MILF.
Officials of the Army’s 602nd Brigade that covers Pagalungan and nearby towns in Cotabato province told reporters Friday five people have been killed in the skirmishes in Barangay Kilangan in Pagalungan that started early this week.
The hostilities involve two groups, one led by members of the Matalam clan in Pagalungan and the other by Nayang Teman, according to Army and police officials in the municipality.
Local leaders, among them municipal councilors and representatives of the local police, proceeded to Barangay Kilangan Thursday and tried to disengage the rival groups but failed.
Bursts of automatic gunfire and explosions of 40 millimeter grenade projectiles again reverberated through Barangay Kilangan as they left.
Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and the regional director of the Bangsamoro police, Brig. Gen. John Guyguyon, separately told reporters Friday their units in Pagalungan are helping the local government unit diffuse the tension in Barangay Kilangan.
Rillera said the 6th ID supports the efforts of local officials to reconcile the enemy groups in Barangay Kilangan to pave the way for the return to the area of displaced villagers.
Barangay Kilangan is a stronghold of the MILF that has two compacts with Malacañang, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, that catalyzed the creation in 2019 of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The appointed chief minister of BARMM, Ahod Ebrahim, is the chairperson of the MILF’s central committee.