Guard dead, two wounded Maguindanao gunfight

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao ---- The police and military are scrambling to disengage two armed groups that figured in a deadly gunfight Thursday in Datu Anggal Midtimbang town.

The incident resulted in the death of a certain Canapia, a security guard of the Amavi Cavendish Banana Plantation in Brar, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, and left two others, Datun Pagayao and a certain Kautin, wounded.  

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Eden Ugale, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters late Thursday that the gunfight that erupted in Brar involved the group of Barangay Chairperson Ugalingan Pagayao, and the banana plantation’s security personnel.

The two gunmen wounded in the clash are relatives of Pagayao, according to reports reaching PRO-BAR and 6^th ID’s Headquarters in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Uy, also concurrent commander of the anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, said he has directed Army units in the adjoining towns of Datu Anggal Midtimbang and Datu Odin Sinsuat to organize “buffer teams” to help diffuse tension between the feuding groups, now locked in a standoff.

Local officials are certain the incident will worsen into a “rido,” or clan war in most Southern Moro languages.

Ugale said the Datu Anggal Midtimbang police and Maguindanao’s police director, Supt. Jibin Bongcayao,  cooperating in trying to determine what sparked the shootout that triggered panic among residents of Barangay Brar.

Ugale said responding Army and municipal police personnel arrested two men right in the scene of the encounter and seized from them an M14 assault rifle, a .45 caliber pistol and a 12 gauge shotgun.  (JOHN FELIX UNSON)