2 Maranaw families clash in Lanao amid Ramadan

LANAO del Sur, Philippines - Authorities are scrambling to amicably settle a raging “rido” between two Maranaw families in Bayang town, whose encounters since Friday already killed 10 people and has displaced hundreds of innocent villagers.

The rido (clan war) between the Kapal and Macugar clans worsened last Friday when gunmen from both sides figured in a running firefight in Barangay Linao in Bayang, located in the first district of Lanao del Sur.

Senior Superintendent Nickson Muksan, director of the Lanao del Sur police, said the Kapal and Macugar families in Barangay Linao are locked in a deep-seated animosity sparked by an intense political rivalry during the May 13 elections.

Muksan has confirmed to reporters that 10 members of the rival families were killed in Friday’s encounter in Barangay Linao.

Three members of the Macugar family who were wounded in the ensuing firefights were rushed to a hospital for medication, according to Muksan.   

“We have worked out an initial truce between the two groups with the help of our counterparts in the Army. We are hoping this can be ironed out peacefully soon with the support of local officials and religious leaders,” Muksan said.

He said armed members of the two families have also agreed to reposition away from Barangay Linao after the deployment of a joint police-Army peacekeeping contingent in the area.

Lanao del Sur accounts for most of the more than a hundred still unresolved clan wars, many of them decades-old, in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which also covers Maguindanao.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, chairman of the regional peace and order council, said officials of the Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission are now trying to settle the Kapal-Macugar rido.

“This is saddening. It’s Ramadan and we ought to fast and focus on good deeds during the season,” Hataman said, referring to the hostilities in Barangay Linao.

Hataman said the ARMM’s social welfare department is now attending to the needs of the Maranaw families affected by the hostilities.

The Islamic Ramadan season, which lasts for one lunar cycle or about 28 to 29 days, started July 10. Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan as a religious obligation and as a means of strengthening spiritual perfection.