1 dead, 3 hurt in wedding shootout in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO - A villager was killed while three others were wounded in a gunfight that marred a traditional Moro wedding rite in Midsayap town on Thursday, police said.

Superintendent Reinante Delos Santos, chief of the Midsayap municipal police, said violence erupted when one of the guests in the wedding ceremony, Kandao Pulalon, shot dead Suharto Kulilung with an M-16 assault rifle.

The Pulalon and Kulilung families in Barangay Tugal, a secluded district in the southeast of Midsayap, are locked in a clan war or "rido."

The attack sent guests to the wedding “kanduli” (banquet) running for their lives.

Delos Santos said a relative of Kulilung, Hashim Mamalampay, was hit by a stray bullet. He was rushed by barangay officials to a nearby hospital.

Responding village watchmen and local members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit who tried to chase the fleeing Pulalon figured in a 25-minute firefight with his relatives, armed with M16 and M14 assault rifles.

In a statement issued Friday, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), which has jurisdiction over North Cotabato province, said a certain Kagui Tandoy from the Pulalon clan and his followers traded shots with the pursuing militiamen and barangay tanods for more than 20 minutes.

Tandoy and his followers escaped, carrying two wounded companions, when they ran out of ammunition.

The 6th ID said combatants of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion are now helping the municipal police secure the areas where members of the feuding clans reside to prevent the escalation of hostilities.