Eleven killed in long-running land dispute between rebel clans in Maguindanao

(The root is a long-standing feud on the ground. The other group (Latip) entered the place where the other group (Sultan) supposedly lived. There was a year of fighting. The land involved is about 45 hectares.)

“Manageable na ang area, naglagay checkpoint at border control by Philippine Army and PNP. It may be that the Bangsamoro Adjoc Joint Action Group will help us achieve more,” she added.

(The area is already manageable, as the Philippine military and the PNP have set up checkpoints and border controls. The Bangsamoro Adjoc Joint Action Group has also started discussions to resolve the conflict.)

Army Lt. Col. Roden Orbon, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, said villagers who fled at the height of the fighting were returning to their communities.

The fighting is the latest reminder of the complex security problems that have long haunted Mindanao. Mindanao has abundant resources and potential, but has long been crippled by abject poverty, weak law enforcement, a large number of unlicensed firearms and a slew of insurgents and bandits.

The MILF was the largest Islamic separatist armed group in Mindanao until it signed a peace deal with the government in 2014, when it abandoned its separatist goal and agreed to a better-financed Islamic autonomous region called Bangsamoro in the volatile south.

The six-province Muslim region is now governed by former rebel leaders in a transitional arrangement ahead of regular elections in May next year.

However, thousands of guerrillas from the rebel front still held on to their firearms as they awaited amnesty and livelihood packages from the government under the peace deal. (TPM/AP/SunStar Philippines)