COTABATO CITY — Local officials here, acting on a request by residents, have filed protest a before the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) joint ceasefire panel on Sunday following reports of harassments from MILF members.
This after MILF men harassed a coastline community here on Saturday night by firing rifle grenades towards Barangay Kalanganan 1. The harassment involved the firing of two rifle grenade projectiles and strafing of several homes allegedly by the group of MILF Commander Erap of the MILF’s 105th base command at past 8 p.m.
Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi condemned the harassment carried out by the MILF against a clan due to “rido” (family feud).
Two families, whose members are all MILF adherents, have been at odds for still unknown reasons and figured in a number of clashes in the past. The warring groups involved a family from Cotabato City, while the other is from the neighboring Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao.
Sayadi said: “If the suspects could evade justice now, how could peace be achieved under the proposed new political entity in Mindanao?”
She was referring to the MILF-led Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) seen to replace the old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao set up.
Cotabato City is one of the areas proposed to join the BARMM following the conduct of a plebiscite scheduled in January next year. The mayor said the perpetrators of the harassment should be penalized.
Security measures in the city have been beefed up with additional security forces from the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion deployed in Barangay Kalanganan 1. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
