PIGCAWAYAN, North Cotabato -- Local officials here have been mediating an in-fighting
involving Moro rebels that already affected civilians and students in a farming
village here.
”We are doing our best, we reached out to warring families,”
Pigcawayan Mayor Herminio Roquero assured residents of the farming village of Burikain
More than 200 pupils of Burikain
Elementary School have skipped classes
on advise of the local government to ensure their safety as warring members of
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had been trading bullets in and around
the village of Burikain
Abdullah Maraguir, secretary of Barangay Burikain, said
classes are still suspended to ensure the safety of teachers and pupils.
He said the suspension has been going on for a week now.
Roquero said pupils are accommodated in nearby barangay
school so their studies are not affected while efforts are underway to settle
the land dispute.
Maraguir said more than 60 percent of the residents of
Barangay Burikain have moved to nearby villages for security reason.
He refused to identify the protagonists in the land dispute
but said they all belonged to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Maraguir believed a third party was involved that ignited
the armed conflict.
The conflict erupted in December when armed men stormed the
village killed a farmer who are related to another MILF leader. Retaliatory
attacks followed, forcing residents to flee.
Roquero said some of the displaced families are now housed
at the municipal gymnasium while others return to their farms at day time move
back to town gymnasium at night.
Roquero said involved in the peaceful settlement of the
conflict are members of the International Monitoring Team and the GPH-MILF
ceasefire panel.
Government forces were also deployed in the village to serve
as peacekeepers and ensure the safety of civilians.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=848772
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