Barangay buildings in Maguindanao del Norte razed by mysterious fire

COTABATO CITY — A mysterious fire, widely perceived related to Monday’s electoral exercise, razed the adjoining barangay hall and health center in Montay in Northern Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday night.

Provincial officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Maguindanao del Norte told reporters on Friday that efforts to establish the cause of fire that destroyed the two buildings are still underway.

The incident was preceded by the fires that hit classrooms, designated as polling sites, in the Ruminimbang Elementary School in Barira and in the Central Pilot School in Datu Odin Sinsuat, both in Maguindanao del Norte, on the eve of the October 30 synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

A building in the campus of the Lower Siling Elementary School in Buluan in Maguindanao del Sur, was also hit by fire after Monday's polling activities in what seemed as arson for villagers in houses around. 

 Residents of Barangay Montay, among them Moro datus, told reporters that they are convinced that their barangay hall and health center were deliberately set on fire.

There were intense rivalries among candidates who vied for barangay and SK posts in Montay during the elections last Monday.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, on Thursday directed investigators in the police stations in the neighboring Northern Kabuntalan and Mother Kabuntalan towns to help BFP fire probers put closure to the fire incident in Barangay Montay.