In Moro community, gunfire meant clan war starting

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Feb 20): In Moro community, gunfire meant clan war starting

It was a community used to gunfire so when the head of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) unit in the village of Libutan in Mamasapano town, heard gunshots at dawn of Jan. 25, he thought it was from two armed groups settling their disputes through the only means they know–the barrel of the gun.

Hadji Muhalidin, nephew of MILF unit commander Ustadz Manan, said he got a phone call from Manan around 5:30 a.m. asking Muhalidin to check the source of gunfire in the area and, if possible, help pacify the warring parties.

Manan, whose unit is under the MILF’s 105th Base Command of Zacaria Goma and not Ustadz Abdulwahid Tundoc’s 108th Base Command, took a call from Inquirer but said he is authorizing his nephew, Muhalidin, to talk on his behalf.

Inevitable clash

Muhalidin said he was with relatives when they encountered one of the groups of Special Action Force (SAF) commandos that opened fire at them around 7 a.m. The first volley of gunfire killed Guinibon Angkay, 65, also an uncle of Muhalidin.

Muhalidin said the clash became inevitable as more armed men emerged.

Muhalidin said his group’s priority was to flee and bring Angkay’s body home. He said his group of five men crept their way out of the gunfight.

They found out who the armed men were upon their return home, according to Muhalidin. They turned out to be SAF members who had been seen by residents earlier gathering on the Tukanalipao Highway.

Muhalidin said his group never returned to the clash site, since his family had to attend to Angkay’s burial rites and to visiting relatives paying their last respects to the dead.

He said it was “difficult to speculate” and that he could not confirm whether international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” had guards and had shot it out with the policemen. “It’s hard to speak about something we didn’t see,” he said.

Muhalidin said contrary to some government reports, his uncle, Ustadz Manan, did not own the nipa hut that sat close to the hut where Marwan was found in the village of Pidsandawan in Mamasapano.

The Inquirer tried to get a picture of Marwan’s hut but was told by residents that the area is no longer what it used to be.

All-out war

Among the armed men that clashed with the SAF commandos are members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

The BIFF, according to its spokesperson Abu Misri Mama, is ready for all-out war if that’s what politicians in Manila wanted.

“If they really want war, (President) Aquino and these politicians should bring guns and march to Maguindanao,” said Mama in a phone interview.

“If they will come here, we will give them what they want. We will show them a real war that is far different from what they see in the movies,” Mama said, taking potshots at Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano who cited movie plots during his questioning at a Senate hearing on the Mamasapano bloodshed.

Mama said an all-out war, however, would not just hurt the BIFF or MILF. “Civilians will suffer most,” he said.http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/674074/in-moro-community-gunfire-meant-clan-war-starting