By Edwin Fernandez/PNA
CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — A recent infighting between Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) factions in Datu Abdullah Sangki, Maguindanao had ceased after the MILF leadership intervened.
Datu Abdullah Sangki Mayor Mariam Mangudadatu said atrocities between the two MILF factions, which began on Dec. 23, stopped on Christmas Eve and that civilians who fled at the height of skirmishes have returned home.
“Soldiers have been deployed near the conflict zone but did not engage the warring families in deference to the existing government and MILF ceasefire agreement,” Brig. Gen. Diosdado Carreon, the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade commander that has jurisdiction in Datu Abdullah Sangki area, said in a statement.
Village chairman Idris Sangki of Barangay Kaya-Kaya where the hostilities occurred on Sunday and Monday said the MILF’s Task Force Etihad (unity) had intervened and sat down with the warring families.
Four rebels were reported killed when MILF leaders traded shots due to a long-standing land dispute in Barangay Kaya-Kaya.
The warring families – one under MILF Commander Datu Item and the other, under Commander Bravo Lindungan — have been claiming ownership of vast parcels of agricultural lands in the village of Kaya-Kaya.
Chairman Sangki said the situation in their village has so far returned to normal.
