8 Basilan clans resolve conflict

Leaders of the eight rival clans hug each other before local executives and representatives of the police and the Army after forging separate peace covenants on October 27, 2023.
Philstar.com / John Unson

MANILA, Philippines — Eight feuding clans in Basilan signed a covenant yesterday to end their decades-long hostilities.

These are the groups of Mahmud Baakal and Jimal Isek, Alnie Ingkas and Puran Abuhun Andong Uyung and Kinnoh Kasim and Andong Uyubg and Khaizer Ajanad.

Basilan Gov. Jim Hataman-Salliman and Sumisip Mayor Julz Hataman initiated the settlement.

Hataman said local government officials helped convince the warring clans to settle their differences.

“We are here because there’s a need to break the cycle of violence. We have to plant the seed of peace today so that the children may harvest the fruit of peace in the future,” Hataman told the parties in Yakan dialect.

The feuding clans signed a peace covenant, declared their commitment to end their conflict and never to provoke each other again.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director, said the settlement was ”another breakthrough in efforts to improve the investment landscape in the province.”

Nobleza credited the Sumisip and Basilan police offices as well as the Army’s 64th Infantry Battalion and 101st Infantry Brigade for the reconciliation of the feuding clans.

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