Proven that peace begets development, the local government of Lambayong, a farming community in Sultan Kudarat province, has facilitated the forging of a peace covenant between two warring Moro clans, officials said Tuesday.
This is in support of the on going peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Lambayong Mayor Florante Agduma, chair of the municipal peace and order council, took the opportunity to bridge families in conflict during the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) meeting Monday.
Agduma said the families of Ustadz Mauya Tungkay and Betol Sanday alias Commander Guevarra, of the MILF’s 106th Base Command, forged the peace covenant.
The family feud, which already claimed lives from both sides, started in 2001 and recently heated up anew during the October 28 barangay elections.
Initiated by Agduma, the peace covenant signing was witnessed by representatives from the GPH Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), International Monitoring Team (IMT), Local Monitoring Team (LMT), police and the military.
Agduma lauded the GPH CCCH, IMT and LMT “for their significant contributions in helping the LGU resolved the conflict of the feuding families.”
Army Brigadier General Dionisio Sedillo Jr., chair of the GPH-CCCH, said that although "rido" is outside the mandate of the CCCH, the mechanism’s intervention can help especially when this involves MILF members as it can potentially affect the GPH-MILF ceasefire agreement due to their organizational affiliation.
“There is a need to resolve personal grudges and explore certain mechanisms to go about it,” Sedillo said after the signing ceremonies.
“It is high time for the feuding families who are connected with the MILF to settle their differences considering that the prospect of the peace negotiation is bright,” said Major Carlos Sol, GPH-CCCH secretariat head.
Under their peace covenant, the parties commit to an immediate ceasefire and refrain from making provocative statements and taking hostile actions like harassment, attacks and grenade throwing against each other or their supporters.
They also committed to return to their respective positions prior to the armed conflict last October 28 and to cooperate with the LGU in the negotiation and exploration of solutions to finally end their dispute.
The two sides also vowed to help bring back normalcy and exert efforts to allow the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their respective villages prior to the armed conflict last barangay elections.
A joint peacekeeping force from the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion and the local police have been deployed to Barangay Udtong, Lambayong pending the final settlement of the dispute of the two families.
The conflict resolution through localized peace dialogues in Lambayong was one of the many similar cases that LGUs managed to resolve in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=590863
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