Sources: Lanao town killings meant to destroy Muslim-Christian relations

From the Philippine Star (Jun 12): Sources: Lanao town killings meant to destroy Muslim-Christian relations

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - Maranaw peasant Pangalian Sumayan had refused to accept any cash assistance for the deaths of his two daughters killed last month in a spate of related attacks in Wao town in Lanao del Sur that left six dead and eight others wounded.

Sumayan is undoubtedly apprehensive that he can be construed as having agreed to a payoff, in exchange for the elusive justice he wants for his slain children, one of them pregnant, if he would receive  traditional "sadakah" from local officials and from the office of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The term sadakah is Arabic for traditional Islamic charity, which can be in form of cash, or food, or good deeds.

Maranaw and Visayan residents here want Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to investigate on the killings last month, which they believe involved people personally known to Wao Mayor Elvino Balicao Jr.

The governor of Lanao del Sur, Mamintal "Bombit" Adiong Jr., a staunch political ally of Balicao, has surprisingly been so silent on the issue. The mayor is a known political protege of Adiong.

Sumayan’s two children were among six people killed in two seemingly related killings on April 24 and 25 in a hinterland barangay in this agricultural town. The incident sparked tension between local Maranaw and non-Muslim communities.

Sumayan resides in a predominantly Moro village in Magampong area in Barangay Park here, which suspected members of the municipal forest protection group, armed with assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenade launchers, attacked on April 25.

The carnage left four Maranaw villagers dead and eight others wounded.

Hataman helped pay for the medication of the injured Maranaws through his deputy, ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, and the regional government’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team.

The atrocity was preceded by the murder of two Visayan children in Sitio Campo Dos in the same barangay on April 24 while watching over family-owned water buffaloes grazing in a communal pasture.

The attack at Magampong, by immediate interpretation, would mean retaliation for the deaths of the two Visayan children.

Maranaw and Visayan folks here are certain forest rangers employed by the municipal government were behind the attack on the Moro enclave at Magampong, whose community leaders are openly supporting the enactment into law of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

The bill, which is the enabling measure for the replacement of ARMM with a new Bangsamoro political entity and premised on a peace compact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is pending in Congress.

Muslim and Christian community elders confirmed that the families of the two slain Visayan children and the Maranaws in Magampong were not locked in any kind of conflict at all.

“There was no reason for the Maranaws to kill the two children, whose families do not have high-powered firearms like what were used to kill innocent Maranaw villagers the next day,” a Christian barangay leader said.

Witnesses, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said the suspects in the brutal killing of the Visayan children wore the same kind of bonnets that concealed the faces of the armed men that killed the Maranaws in Magampong.

The suspects first surrounded the village and opened fire with M-16 and M-14 assault rifles. They also shot houses with 40 millimeter explosive projectiles using a shoulder-fire launcher.

“We firmly believe it was an attempt to drive a wedge among the Christians and the Muslims in Wao,” said a Maranaw Imam (cleric) who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There are talks spreading around purporting that the two incidents could be related to the strong opposition of most local officials and their Visayan supporters to the inclusion of Wao in the proposed core territory of the envisioned Bangsamoro political entity.

The rabid opposition by local Visayan leaders to the draft BBL even hogged the news when the municipal council, on Balicao’s instigation, authored a resolution stating that local residents are against Wao's inclusion into the proposed contiguous Moro homeland.

The move prompted the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the government’s peace panel, chaired by Miriam Coronel Ferrer, to convince signatories to the document to support the GPH-MILF peace efforts and help pitch for the BBL's enactment into law.

“Most of the local officials against the BBL assured OPAPP to do a turnaround from their position, but after the government representatives that talked to them had left, they again showed opposition to the BBL and, eventually, the April 24 and 25 killings happened,” said a Christian public school teacher.

http://www.philstar.com/nation/2015/06/12/1465137/sources-lanao-town-killings-meant-destroy-muslim-christian-relations