MATALAM, North Cotabato -- Normalcy has slowly been restored in three remote villages here after feuding factions of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed Friday a peace covenant.
About 6,000 villagers from Barangays Elian, Kilada and Marbel, three adjoining villages of Matalam, also started to return home amid shaky truce since an earlier localized truce was violated by both sides.
Datu Dima Ambil, chair of the MNLF forces in
The CCCH is a ceasefire monitoring mechanism between MILF and government forces.
Followers of Ambil and Mansur have traded bullets and rifle grenades three times since May 6 when the clashes began.
Ambil claimed the MILF violated a local agreement that they will not carry guns and wear fatigue uniforms when they enter the three villages, known bailiwick and peace zone of the MNLF after it signed a peace deal with the national government in 1996.
Mansur said Ambil's followers fired the first shot and they just retaliated. Ambil claimed otherwise.
A local ceasefire agreement was forged but Ambil said the MILF fired at MNLF forces anew on May 11 and 16.
Mansur, on the other hand, claimed the Army sided with the MNLF when they fired shots toward MILF forces.
North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talinio Mendoza has ordered the provincial disaster risk reduction management council to extend assistance to the families who flocked to Barangay Kilada.
Government forces from the Army's 602nd Infantry Brigade and
The warring groups are only separated by about 800 meters and Marbel river.
One MILF member was killed while two others were wounded. Two MNLF fighters were hurt, police reports said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=527667
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