Two rival Moro reb groups clash

COTABATO CITY — Two rival groups of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas, each supporting different local political blocs, clashed in Midsayap, North Cotabato last Saturday, just an hour after thousands of pro-independence Muslims started their two-day Bangsamoro People’s Assembly in a nearby town.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said there were no reports of casualties but the running gunbattle between the warring groups of Puwa Mangadta and Tubog Pulalon forced dozens of families in Barangay Mudsing, Midsayap to flee.

Mangadta and Pulalon are both MILF commanders, whose groups are operating in the boundary of Midsayap and Datu Piang towns in Maguindanao.

"Members of the two groups destroyed several shanties of farmers in the area before fleeing from the scene after sensing that soldiers sent to drive them away had started closing in," Ando said.

One of the rebel groups also carted away five work animals of poor farmers in Barangay Mudsing, according to village officials. — John Unson