A rebel and eight of his associates were slain in a road ambush in the southern Philippines on Saturday, authorities said, which was allegedly started by a land dispute.
In an early morning ambush in an isolated farming village in Guindulungan town in Maguindanao province, several attackers raked two SUVs with assault rifle fire, killing nine people and wounding three others who were on their way to a meeting to resolve a longstanding clan dispute, according to police and local officials.
Many such disputes over land, money, and politics have been handled violently in southern areas where law enforcement is poor, there are significant quantities of unlicensed firearms, and armed organisations controlled by powerful clans and politicians are present.
In the same province in November 2009, the country’s bloodiest politically motivated massacre killed at least 57 people, including more than 30 journalists. A court convicted 49 people guilty in 2019, including members of a powerful family.
Peges Mamasainged, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the strongest Muslim rebel group in the south of the largely Roman Catholic country that struck a peace accord with the government in 2014, was one of those murdered in Saturday’s ambush. According to the rebels, his assassination was sparked by a clan feud.
Post Your Comments