2 groups fight over land, displace 48 families

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines - Officials are scrambling to resolve the squabbles of two groups fighting for patches of arable lands in a government agricultural reservation which displaced 48 families on Monday.

Local officials facilitated the relocation of the displaced Ilonggo and Manobo families to safer areas far from Barangay Patadon, scene of recurring hostilities between Moro and Visayan settlers squabbling for control of lands inside the demonstration farm of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The latest hostilities in Barangay Patadon erupted Monday afternoon when Moro gunmen opened fire on Visayan farmers tilling their lands, provoking a brief firefight.

Psalmer Bernalte, chief public safety officer of the Kidapawan City government, said most of the villagers displaced by the incident are now temporarily housed in a public multi-purpose building in Barangay Amas, near the North Cotabato provincial capitol.

Bernalte said the two rival groups are fighting for lands inside the 500-hectare reservation being managed by the Central Mindanao Agricultural Research Center, which is operating under the ministerial control of the regional office of DA 12.

The Moro claimants, led by Satar Manalundong, has been asserting that the lands being managed by the DA are owned by their ancestors.

Their Visayan rivals have also been insisting that they are entitled to till the contested lands since they were there first and that Manalundong’s group started pestering them only after they have developed the areas where they raise orchard trees and other short-term crops.