Classes in troubled southern town suspended due to security woes

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Classes in the troubled Pikit town in Cotabato are suspended until Friday following the death of a 13-year-old boy in another gun attack in the area that left two other children wounded.

No fewer than 40 people had been killed since 2021 in shooting incidents in Pikit, located in the first district of Cotabato province, all unsolved.

Pikit Mayor Sumulong Sultan signed on Tuesday afternoon an executive order suspending until Friday the classes in all schools in barangays under his jurisdiction following the fatal ambush about four hours before of a 13-year-old student, Fahad Guintawan, in an attack in Barangay Gli-Gli that left two other 12-year-old boys wounded.

A tricycle driver, Dodong Gonzales, was shot dead by two men together on a motorcycle last Monday near the town proper of Pikit, just four days after bakery owner Ansarie Luntayan was killed with a pistol by attackers in nearby Barangay Takepan in the same municipality.

Deadly gunfights between rival clans, some identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, also rocked different areas in Pikit in the past 24 months, causing the displacement of innocent villagers.