Rival Moro forces clash on Maguindanao border

MAGUINDANAO. Philippines —  More than a dozen peasant enclaves at the border of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguindanao are now "ghost villages" due to sporadic encounters between rival Moro forces since last week, officials said Tuesday.

More than 10,000 villagers were forced to evacuate to safer areas due to the recurring firefights in Kalbugan District between forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

The marshy Kalbugan area is the northern gateway to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, a haven of Moro rebels with different revolutionary allegiances, some of whom are led by religious extremists identified with the radical BIFF.

At least seven guerillas from both sides have reportedly been killed in the latest encounters between the groups of Jack Abbas of the MILF and followers of the BIFF's Ustadz Karialan and Gani Saligan, who are both trying to intrude into peasant enclaves at the boundary of Pikit and Pagalungan to collect revolutionary taxes from villagers.

Tahira Kalantungan, municipal disaster risk reduction management officer of Pikit, told reporters a big number of the evacuees from the areas where the two groups had figured in running firefights in the past five days were from Barangay Barongis, Kabasalan, Bulol, Rajah Muda and Bago Inged.

Kalantungan said they have listed more than 6,000 evacuees from the five barangays alone, now housed in makeshift relief sites and government buildings in areas near the town proper of Pikit.

More than 2,000 families in affected barangays in Pagalungan have also evacuated to safer areas for fear of getting trapped in the crossfire, according to officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Pagalungan, located in the second district of Maguindanao, is a component province of ARMM. The municipality, birthplace of MILF's founder, the late Egyptian-trained cleric Salamat Hashim, is a known bastion of rebels known for their blind loyalty to the revolutionary ideals of their deceased figurehead.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the regional government's Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team on Monday dispatched workers to attend to the needs of evacuees from several barangays in Pagalungan.

Pikit's municipal Vice Mayor Datu Don Mangansakan, a key member of the municipal peace and order council, said their local government unit has sent emissaries to convince the feuding groups to immediately reposition away from populated areas.

Mangansakan said barangay folks have confirmed that the rival BIFF and MILF forces are locked in squabbles for control of farming communities in the swampy border of Pikit and Pagalungan.

Neighboring towns of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguindanao are seen in this satellite images. Google Earth

"We are urging these feuding groups to cease from fighting and agree to peaceful means of resolving their misunderstandings," Mangansakan said.

He said Abbas, an ethnic Maguindanaon, is an influential MILF leader in Central Mindanao's raya (upstream) area and has hundreds of armed followers scattered in the vast Liguasan Delta.

Barangay folks said the tension in the border of Pagalungan and Pikit worsened when gunmen from both sides set on fire abandoned houses of peasant families that relocated to safer areas.

Evacuees said many houses were burned down by members of the warring groups in one arson attack after another.