Security tight in Sultan Kudarat after land dispute leaves 1 dead

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines - Security forces have been deployed around Barangay Maindang in Lutayan town following the murder over the weekend of a peasant identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The victim, Oscar Gayak, was shot dead by another Moro farmer, Karalih Mama, right in their residential yard in a farming enclave in Barangay Maindang, a secluded district in the east of Lutayan.

Local officials said Mama also has relatives in the MILF.

Sr. Insp. Melvin Balba, chief of the Lutayan municipal police, said the Gayak and Mama families are locked in a bloody clan war triggered by a land dispute.

Balba said Mama first had an altercation with Gayak before he pulled out a handgun from his waist and repeatedly shot the latter.

Neighbors of Gayak immediately fled to nearby barangays, apprehensive they could be trapped in a crossfire if his relatives in the MILF would retaliate.

Balba said policemen and soldiers are now guarding Barangay Maindang to prevent escalation of hostilities.

Balba said the Lutayan local government unit is now trying to amicably settle the clan war involving the Gayak and Mama families.