Rido in Maguindanao town forces residents to leave homes

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Two heavily armed groups clashed for the eighth time in Maguindanao’s Montawal at dawn Friday, forcing  thousands of villagers to flee their homes.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the hostilities erupted when a band or rogue Moro rebels, led by Commander Bingcog of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, surrounded villages near the town proper of Montawal and opened fire at houses using assault rifles.

Armed villagers engaged Bingcog and his men in a two-hour firefight, forcing the MILF rogue commander and his men to retreat to a nearby marsh west of Montawal.

Bingcog and his men also fired at houses at Montawal’s adjoining Barangays  Tunggol, Talepas and Dungguan as they fled.

Bingcog and his men are locked in a violent “rido,” or clan war with Datu Andie Montawal, an older sibling of Montawal municipal mayor Otto Montawal.

Bingcog’s group have repeatedly attacked the town proper of  Montawal since October after a relative was allegedly killed by the Montawals in nearby Kabacan town in North Cotabato. - John Unson