19 dead as Moro groups clash in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY — At least 19 gunmen were killed in a series of gunfights between two armed Moro groups, locked in a land dispute, in Barangay Kilangan in Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur on Wednesday, October 30.

Officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division on Thursday said that the two groups are squabbling for ownership of vast swaths of agricultural lands in Sitio Gageranin, an interior area in Barangay Kilangan.

Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said that he has directed the 602nd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over Pagalungan and nearby towns, to help local officials and the police reposition the two groups away from Kilangan to enable religious and traditional Moro leaders to settle the conflict.

In a report to the 6th ID and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region on Thursday, municipal officials said that the hostilities involved Alonto Sultan and his relatives in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and another faction, led by Ekot Dandua, also a ranking member of the front.

Barangay officials and members of the multi-sector Pagalungan Municipal Peace and Order Council confirmed to reporters on Thursday that the incident left 19 fatalities on both sides. 

Nafarrete, citing reports from the 602nd Brigade and the 90th Infantry Battalion, said soldiers who responded to the incident found nine cadavers with bullet wounds in one of the scenes of the encounters. 

Villagers, among them Muslim preachers residing in Kilangan who relocated to safe areas as the skirmishes ensued, said that 10 more gunmen perished in the clashes in areas far from where the nine cadavers were recovered by soldiers and policemen.