Residents vow unity despite desecration of Pigcawayan chapel

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Christians in Pigcawayan town will not let the destruction by bandits of a Catholic chapel in an isolated barangay in the municipality divide them and their Muslim neighbors.

 

Members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) vandalized the chapel in Barangay Malagakit, Pigcawayan as they laid siege there for nine hours on Wednesday.

 

Officials of the Pigcawayan municipal peace and order council said on Thursday that Christian residents remain sober despite the desecration of the chapel.

 

Pigcawayan residents are certain that the chapel was deliberately vandalized to sow animosity between them and their Muslim neighbors.

 

“That was meant to sow anger among us. We will not respond the way the BIFF want us to respond to that despicable act,” said Salvador Almonia, Jr., chairman of Barangay Malagakit.

 

BIFF gunmen used hammers to destroy religious icons and fixtures in the chapel near a public school that another group of bandits ransacked and looted.

 

The gunmen even raised an inverted Philippine flag on the school's flagpole, which indicates a state of war.

 

They also destroyed portraits of President Rodrigo Duterte that they found in the classrooms.

 

North Cotabato Vice Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva, a member of the provincial peace and order council, on Thursday urged Muslim and Christian residents of Pigcawayan’s adjoining Barangays Malagakit and Simsiman to disregard obvious attempts to drive a wedge between them.

 

“Let us be sober and continue with the friendship and solidarity that we have. We just have to be vigilant and we need to help each other prevent a repeat of the incident,” Macasarte-Villanueva said.

 

BIFF gunmen attacked Barangays Malagakit and Simsiman on Wednesday morning and laid siege there for about nine hours.

 

They were eventually driven away by soldiers, militiamen and barangay tanods led by Almonia and his barangay kagawads.

 

Macasarte-Villanueva said she is thankful to the Muslim and Christian leaders in the two barangays for cooperating with the efforts of authorities to restore normalcy in their conflict-stricken communities.

 

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza and Pigcawayan Mayor Eliseo Garcesa, Jr. are now attending to the needs of hundreds of families displaced by the hostilities in the two barangays.