Buluan, Maguindanao – Four warring Moro families have peacefully settled their seven-year old rido or clannish feud that has claimed the lives of nine people, including two prominent political dignitaries in the Iranun community of this province.
Followers and leaders including elected officials in the combined Tomawis and Simban clans and their counterparts in the allied Dagalangit and Malambut families traded hugs and handshakes after swearing before the Holy Qur’an to bury the hatchet during a solemn ceremony here on Tuesday.
Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, chair of the Maguindanao Task Force on Reconciliation and Unification (MTFRU), presided over the emotion-packed rites where all protagonists in the feud signed a covenant binding them to revive peaceful co-existence nurtured for decades by their ancestors in Barira, one of the four Iranun towns in this province.
Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, chair of the Maguindanao Task Force on Reconciliation and Unification (MTFRU), presided over the emotion-packed rites where all protagonists in the feud signed a covenant binding them to revive peaceful co-existence nurtured for decades by their ancestors in Barira, one of the four Iranun towns in this province.
Lt. Col. Florencio Politud, head of the Barira-based Army’s Infantry Battalion, a Moro Islamic Liberation Front liaison officer, an imam and intervening traditional leaders signed the covenant as witnesses alongside the governor.
Sources from both camps said the four-family rido or clannish feud began largely from a political rift that erupted after the killing of Iranun Development Council Chair Alex Tomawis in November 2010. He was shot dead near his rest house in Davao City by two unidentified assailants believed to be hired assassins.
Eight more members of the warring camps were subsequently killed in separate shooting incidents, sources said.
At their settlement rites, incumbent Barira Mayor Abdulrajak Tomawis and Vice Mayor Amirsalam Dagalangit said they had conceded finally to months of mediation by Gov. Mangudadatu and MTFRU negotiators, admitted having realized that their feud, if kept unsettled, would not only stunt growth in their community but also erode their Islamic faith.
Sources from both camps said the four-family rido or clannish feud began largely from a political rift that erupted after the killing of Iranun Development Council Chair Alex Tomawis in November 2010. He was shot dead near his rest house in Davao City by two unidentified assailants believed to be hired assassins.
Eight more members of the warring camps were subsequently killed in separate shooting incidents, sources said.
At their settlement rites, incumbent Barira Mayor Abdulrajak Tomawis and Vice Mayor Amirsalam Dagalangit said they had conceded finally to months of mediation by Gov. Mangudadatu and MTFRU negotiators, admitted having realized that their feud, if kept unsettled, would not only stunt growth in their community but also erode their Islamic faith.
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