300 displaced as suspected MILF members open fire on village

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hostile to a defeated mayoral candidate fired shots in Barangay Bagoenged in Pagalungan town Thursday, causing the displacement of some 300 villagers.

Captain Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said the gunmen, led by Bhuto Sanday of the MILF’s 108th Base Command, arrived at Barangay Bagoenged from nearby Pikit town in North Cotabato and, without warning, fired assault rifles and shoulder-fire 40 mm grenades at houses of innocent ethnic Moro villagers.

“We learned from the evacuees and local officials that the real target of that harassment attack was a former barangay chairman named Kamad Andoy,” Bulao said.

Andoy, whose family is locked in long time disputes with other local Moro clans, lost his bid for Pagalungan’s mayoral post during the May 13 elections.

Bulao said Sanday and his men scampered towards the swampy border of Pagalungan and Pikit after sensing that responding policemen and soldiers were closing in.

Another group of guerillas, led by Commanders Bigkog and Badawi, also shot with assault rifles a farming village in Barangay Kudal, also in Pagalungan, just as Sanday’s group was escaping from the nearby Bagoenged area.

Bulao said residents of Barangay Kudal displaced by the attack have relocated to houses of relatives in surrounding villages.