Gov’t Relief Agencies Attend to Needs of 15,000 Families Displaced by MILF, BIFF Conflict

Pagalungan, Maguindanao (PNA) -– Government relief agencies have attended to the emergency needs of about 15,000 individuals displaced by armed conflict involving Moro groups that claimed they exist because of Moro people.

Eight villages in the adjoining towns of Pikit in North Cotabato and Pagalungan in Maguindanao have become “ghost towns” after civilians deserted them when warring Moro armed groups clashed Saturday and continue to fight Tuesday.

Local officials identified the deserted villages as Barangays Barongis, Buliok, Bago Inged, Bulol and Rajamuda, all of Pikit, North Cotabato and the villages of Kalbugan and Buliok in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Maguindanao and North Cotabato disaster agencies reported about 1,200 families displaced in Pagalungan while 1,800 families from Pikit have evacuated.

Tahira Kalantongan, Pikit municipal disaster chief, said about 8,000 individuals are in various evacuation sites in Pikit and another 7,000 from Pagalungan.

Lawyer Laisa Alamia, executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said relief workers from the Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (HEART), have been distributing food packs and other relief items to displaced families in Pagalungan on which it has political supervision.

Kalantongan said there is no civilian casualty in the armed conflict. She was referring to the fire fight between the group of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Jack Abbas and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) Commander Kagi Karialan on Saturday night that stretched until Tuesday dawn.

”Many of the IDPs refused to return home despite assurance from authorities that they can go back home,” Kalantongan said.

In the village of Kalbugan, Pagalugan, site of Saturday night’s clash, only armed MILF men were seen guarding the village perimeter over-looking a river that separates them from BIFF armed men.

In adjacent villages of Kabasalan and Bulol in Pikit, Kalantongan said the area was deserted.

At least seven houses were torched by still unidentified armed men.

Kalantongan said North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza has sent the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council personnel to distribute relief goods to IDPS from Pikit now housed in various temporary evacuation centers in Poblacion Pikit.

Capt. Joanne Petinglay, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said the warring groups have continued sporadic fire fight deep into the marshland but sounds of guns and mortars could still be heard in Poblacion Pikit.

”It was a family feud involving two Moro leaders who belonged to separate armed groups – MILF and BIFF,” she said.

The Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion which has jurisdiction of Pikit and Pagalungan remained on alert and provided security to IDPs in evacuation centers. (PNA) LAP/NYP/EOF