Pigcawayan, North Cotabato – Farmer Abraham Cutay, 33, hid his family for safety inside a rice mill upon learning that hundreds of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were nearing barangay Malagakit on Wednesday, June 21.

It was around 5:45 a.m. as Cutay and other villagers prepared to evacuate to safety. He led his wife Gloryjane and their three children to a nearby rice mill.

Unfortunately, however, his youngest son, two-year-old Daniel, cried as five men armed with high-powered rifles passed by the rice mill. The armed men caught them.

“One of the armed men knew him so he shielded my husband and begged the others not to kill him,” Gloryjane recounted in Ilonggo dialect.

However, she said, one of the armed men told his companions, “If you don’t kill him now, he would kill you in the future.”

Then one of the five armed men, who was wearing a ski mask and appeared to be the leader of the group, shot Cutay several times in the body and in the knee in front of his wife and children.

Gloryjane added that the person who shot her husband further said that they had been relaying a message to him not to join the CAFGU but he did not listen.

Abraham was supposed to graduate from a Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) on June 26.

After the armed men left, Gloryjane and her children evacuated to the town proper along with hundreds of other barangay residents.

The body of her husband was recovered the following day when the military recaptured the village as the rebels withdrew to the nearby Liguasan Marsh.

Malagakit is one of the villages here located around the sprawling Liguasan Marsh, a known bailiwick of the Moro rebels. The barangay, which is about eight kilometers from the town proper, is one of the gateways to the marshland.

This town is one of the towns of North Cotabato which  shares a  boundary with Maguindanao province.

AN OLD ANIMOSITY

The attack on Malagakit on Wednesday was not first time.

Over the years, there have been clashes between the armed villagers and Moro rebels in several villages of this town. The animosity between the Christians and Muslims in this town has been going on for about four decades now.

This town, along with several other towns in the province, is known as one of the origins of the armed Christian group Ilaga, who took up arms against Moro rebels in 1970s.  Today, remnants of the Ilaga are still actively defending their villages in times of conflict.

Village chief Salvador Almonia recalled that they have been monitoring the movement of the rebels since June 18. For two nights, he said, they were on guard, ready to defend their village should the rebels launch an attack.

On Wednesday, around 300 BIFF fighters attacked  their village as well as the Army outpost  in the neighboring village of Simsiman.

“I don’t know why they keep on coming here,” the village chief said. But some sources disclosed that the rebels have been hunting him for years already because he was leading the Peacekeeping Action Team defending their village.

An official in the provincial government, who declined to be named, said that some of the armed men may have wanted to avenge the arrest of some suspected drug traffickers from Simsiman.

“In the past, the police had been conducting checkpoints here in Malagakit and this led to the arrest of some suspected drug traffickers,” said a source, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

Simsiman is believed to be one of the lairs of drug dealers active in the entire province. Local villagers believe that some of the attackers may have come from Simsiman itself, because some of them knew the houses of the BPAT members.

One of the BPAT members said that some houses of his colleagues were strafed and ransacked after the residents fled.

Alimonia belied reports that the BIFF rebels torched the school. They just holed up in the classroom, where they also held at least 30 villagers, he said. The rebels destroyed some school facilities and appliances in the school.

News reports quoted Abu Misri, BIFF spokesman, as saying that they did not take the civilians as hostages. Instead, they held them inside the classrooms so they would not be hit in the crossfire, he said.

The residents were able to get out of the village around 10 p.m. on Wednesday when the rebels withdrew.

Local officials also denied reports that students and teachers were taken as hostages. Schools have not yet opened in the barangay, they said.

The rebels, however, vandalized the  walls of a classroom, on which they wrote: “Dapat kay Digong DU30 pugutan ng ulo.” They also burned a picture of President Duterte.

At the barangay center building, the rebels wrote “ISIS” on the walls.

“Buset ka DU30, mag-ingat ka na isusunod namin ang Davao City: ISIS Group,” it was written in chalk on a blackboard.

During the attack, the BIFF bandits also desecrated the Catholic chapel. Eight religious images were either smashed on the floor.

Fr. Dominic Villa, this town’s parish priest, said he is saddened by the desecration of the chapel. The rebels have no respect for religion and the place of worship, he said.

As of 10 a.m. of June 23, at least 1,000 persons had yet to return home as the military and police have yet to clear the villages of Malagakit and Simsiman following the BIFF attack of June 21.

Mayor Eliseo Garcesa Jr. said some evacuees are eager to return to their homes to be able to work on their farms. But the mayor said that military has not yet given a timeline on their clearing operations.

HATE AND DISTRUST

For about four decades now, there has been deep hate and distrust in the relationship between the Christians and Muslims in this town.

Land conflict is among the most common causes of unrest. Thus, when the villagers in Malagakit fled their homes, they stayed in separate evacuation centers – the Christians staying in the school in the town proper while the Muslims chose to stay in the Muslim-dominated village of Panatan, which is part of Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao.

Mayor Garcesa lamented that this new cycle of violence has been going on for years, further polarizing his constituents.

But Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza assured all of the displaced villagers that they will receive all forms of assistance equally. She said additional police and military have been deployed in Malagakit and Simsiman to secure the area.

“We in the provincial government will provide all your needs while you are still here in the evacuation center. If you have lost your loved ones, farm animals, or your property was destroyed, let us know,” the governor said.

Village chief Alimonia said he believes the rebels will come back and this has sown fear among the villagers. “We know that they will come back and harass us. But we are ready to give them a good fight, we will not be cowed,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Keith Bacongco

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