About 400 families have fled their homes in a remote village
here following the death of two villagers whose families vowed to retaliate.
Chief Insp. Joseph Placer, Alamada police chief, said
residents, mostly from Maguindanaon tribe, fled their homes toward the town
center and refused to return home unless peacekeepers are stationed in the
village.
Placer said unidentified men ambushed and killed Anwar
Sumlay and Taib Tuandato, both farmers and resident of Sitio Marabuay, Barangay
Bao, Alamada, North Cotabato .
Placer said tension ran high when relatives of the victims
publicly declared they will retaliate since they know who did the crime.
The local police have initiated a dialogue in an effort to
prevent the eruption of a clan war.
Relatives of Sumlay and Tuandato vowed to retaliate to
attain justice after the 14th day of prayer for the dead is over.
Both were killed in an ambush on Sept. 17 while heading for
home on board a motorbike.
Placer said he already requested the 45th Infantry Battalion
to deploy Army peacekeepers to help the local police maintain law and order in
the barangay where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front maintains a community.
The victims’ families who were identified with the MILF
vowed to avenge their death.
Local Muslim religious leaders, however, vowed to use its
influence to settle the incident peacefully through payment of “blood money” by
the suspects’ families.
”We are negotiating with the parties involved, a peaceful
settlement is in progress, I hope we will succeed,” Ustadz Ameril Kudindang, a
local Islamic preacher said in a phone interview.
He said the parties involved were actually related by blood
and by affinity.
Placer said the local police was closely coordinating with
the Muslim elders to prevent a full-blown shooting war involving warring
families.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=808319
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