COTABATO CITY — Up to 19 gunmen were killed in a series of gunfights between two armed Moro groups, locked in a land dispute, in Barangay Kilangan in Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur on Wednesday.
Officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said on Thursday that the two groups are squabbling for ownership of vast swaths of agricultural lands in Sitio Gageranin, an interior area in Barangay Kilangan.
Major Gen. Antonio G. Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said that he has directed the 602nd Infantry Brigade to help local officials and the police reposition the two groups away from Kilangan to enable religious and traditional Moro leaders to settle the conflict. — John Felix M. Unson