Villagers displaced by hostilities between 2 Moro factions

COTABATO CITY - A Moro gunman was killed while six others were reportedly hurt in a series of gunfights on Wednesday afternoon in Barangay Banucagon in Pigcawayan town in North Cotabato that sent hundreds of villagers running for their lives.

Citing reports relayed by local executives, officials of Army units in the province and Col. Gilbert Tuzon, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, told reporters on Thursday that the protagonists in the gunfights are two enemy groups belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Evacuees, among them Muslim religious preachers, have confirmed that one perished while six others were wounded in the gunfights of the two groups, squabbling for control of territories and locked in deep-seated animosity triggered by their having supported different candidates during the October 30, 2023 synchronized Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections.

Barangay officials and personnel of the Pigcawayan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said no fewer than 600 villagers, among them children, were displaced by the hostilities.

The Pigcawayan LGU has relocated the affected villagers to a public gymnasium in Barangay South Manuangan in the same town, while some have moved to houses of relatives in agricultural enclaves far from the areas where the two MILF groups figured in gunfights using M16 and M14 assault rifles.

Army Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, and Region 12 police director Brig. Gen. Augustus Placer, had sent emissaries to work out the disengagement of the two groups to pave the way for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.