Another ethnic group chieftain in BARMM shot dead
COTABATO CITY — Another chieftain of an indigenous non-Moro group died in a gun attack in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao del Sur last weekend,
The slain chieftain is the 83rd influential tribesman killed in similar atrocities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) since 2019.
The slain 40-year-old Baywan L. Angan of Central Mindanao’s Dulangan Manobo community was popular for his extensive involvement in the settlement of conflicts between tribe members and intruders grabbing agricultural lands in their ancestral domains in the borders of Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao del Sur provinces.
Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office in BARMM, told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Angan was shot dead by armed men right in their family yard in Barangay Mantao in Datu Hoffer in Maguindanao del Sur.
Mr. Angan was a former member of the barangay council in Mantao, according to local officials and leaders of the Teduray tribe in the municipality.
Residents of Barangay Mantao had told reporters that Mr. Angan, known to them as a non-violent tribal leader, was unarmed when he was killed by men with assault rifles while his arms were raised, pleading for his life.
A Teduray member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament, Froilyn Tenorio Mendoza, had condemned the brutal killing of Mr. Angan and called on the police to put a closure to the incident.
Records obtained from Army and police units in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces, both in the Bangsamoro region, and in Sultan Kudarat in Region 12, indicate that Mr. Angan is the 83rd leader of an indigenous tribe killed in wanton gun attacks in the autonomous region since since 2019. — John Felix M. Unson
