A member of the government peace panel talking peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has brokered a localized truce involving members of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Maguindanao, authorities here said Wednesday.
Members of MNLF have been fighting each other since Monday in the borders of North and South Upi, upland towns in Maguindanao.
North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang Sr. said the in-fighting was an offshoot of the recent midterm elections where a mayoral candidate was ambushed by suspected MNLF in South Upi, Maguindanao.
Piang, mayor of adjacent North Upi town and member of the government peace panel talking with the MILF, also in Maguindanao, said about 260 families of Moro and indigenous peoples have fled to safer grounds when the in-fighting erupted Monday and Tuesday.
Piang said Maguindanao Governor Esmael Toto Mangudadatu has already sent relief goods through the provincial social welfare and development office.
The feuding MNLF groups, one led by Salipada Sumael of Barangay Ganassi in North Upi, and the other by Basco Omar, of Barangay Lamod in South Upi, traded bullets Tuesday morning, sending villagers to flee.
South Upi Vice Mayor Baba Omar, who ran and lost in the election, survived an ambush on May 11 while heading for home. His niece was killed while another relative was wounded.
Upon Mayor Piang’s initiative, both Sumael and Basco agreed to a localized truce on Tuesday night.
Sumael and Omar, aside from supporting rival candidates in the election, were locked in a “rido” (family feud) over vast track of lands in the borders of North and South Upi.
Their animosities heightened during the elections. The Omars disarmed two members of the other group following the botched attempt to kill the South Upi vice-mayor in an ambush.
Piang said community elders have also been helping resolve the conflict amicably.
The warring groups used assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenades as they tried to outgun each other Tuesday morning.
Brig, Gen. Alex Balutan, chief of 1st Marine Brigade, said Marine combatants will be deployed in South Upi to immediate intervene if both sides violate the localized truce.
Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, MNLF chairman, has sent emissaries to pacify the warring MNLF leaders and prevent bloodshed.
In Matalam, North Cotabato, forces of MNLF and rival MILF remained locked at each other as about 3,000 civilians remained in evacuation centers.
Local officials, led by North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza, were trying to patch up the MNLF-MILF misunderstanding.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=526653
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