Palace, BARMM to resolve clan wars

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Malacañang and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will resolve clan wars in the attempt to hasten the decommissioning of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants.

MILF chief Hadji Murad Ebrahim said Friday that Presidential Peace and Reconciliation Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. has assured him of help in reconciling feuding clans to complement the normalization agenda of the newly established regional government.

Ebrahim, appointed chief minister of BARMM, also leads the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) tasked to set up the new and more empowered regional government replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in central Mindanao and Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-BARMM have said in separate statements that they are ready to help Ebrahim broker the settlement of conflicts involving big Moro clans and groups identified with local MILF leaders.

The BARMM covers the scattered provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi that originally belonged to ARMM.

Cotabato City and 63 barangays in North Cotabato province, both inside Region 12, joined the BARMM.

The BARMM is the product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF.

“There is a need to settle as early as possible some rido (clan wars) involving MILF commanders, conflicts involving certain families, in preparation for the decommissioning process,” Ebrahim said.

He said Galvez has committed to help in reconciling rival families in the core territory of BARMM.

Ebrahim said the BTA is aware that unsettled family feuds can cause reluctance among protagonists to lay down their firearms and be reintegrated into mainstream communities in the BARMM.

The 6th ID and the Maguindanao Task Force Reconciliation and Unification under the office of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu have settled more than a hundred clan wars since 2011, some of them involving MILF field commanders.

The conflicts stemmed from landownership issues, affronts to clan honor and political rivalries.

The MILF leadership was able to settle the feud between two warring rival groups in a remote village in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat yesterday.

The warring groups of Gani Abdul and Akmad Madi have peacefully agreed “to end their misunderstanding” for the benefit of the residents of Barangay Laguilayan, according to a certain Commander Stallion of the MILF.

Abdul is a relative of Commander Stallion while Akmad Madi is an MILF member.   

Stallion said Abdul and Madi made peace in front of other ranking members of the MILF and local officials.

Peace advocacy groups, some operating with the help of foreign benefactors, blame the weak judicial system in Moro areas due to lack of prosecutors and judges as the main cause of the proliferation of clan wars.

The Maguindanao provincial peace and order council said they are ready to help the BARMM settle clan wars. – With Ramil Bajo