Feuding MILF factions figure in firefight in Maguindanao town
December 16, 2016 | 3:44pm
The military has called on the Ampatuan municipal peace and order council to convince the two groups to disengage and move away from Barangay Kakal.
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Three guerrillas were badly hurt in an hour-long firefight in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on Thursday between two rival factions within the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The hostilities between the groups of feuding MILF commanders Tuaba and Alud also caused the displacement of dozens of poor ethnic Maguindanaon families.
The two commanders are squabbling for control of strategic patches of arable land in Barangay Kakal southwest of Ampatuan.
Col. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, said three of Tuaba’s men — Gringo Sangki, Dading Kadil and Jaime Pasayan — were wounded in the firefight.
Sobejana has called on the Ampatuan municipal peace and order council to convince the two groups to disengage and move away from Barangay Kakal to keep more residents from being affected by the fighting.
Barangay Kakal is an underdeveloped area whose residents rely mainly on farming as main source of income.
Sobejana said personnel of the 57th Infantry Battalion are now helping the Ampatuan local government guard nearby villages from a possible spillover of the conflict.
There have been more than 30 fierce clashes between feuding MILF commanders in central Mindanao’s adjoining Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces in the past six months.
Thousands of villagers were affected by these skirmishes, some triggered by rivalries for control of villages from whose residents feuding commanders collect “revolutionary taxes” to sustain their groups.
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