COTABATO CITY — Officials settled on Tuesday three different deadly clan wars in Tabuan-Lasa town in Basilan, ending longtime hostilities that have exacted fatalities on protagonist camps.

The leaders of the feuding groups signed a common peace covenant together brokered by officials of the 101st Infantry Brigade, the 4th Special Forces Battalion, Tabuan-Lasa Mayor Moner S. Manisan and Basilan Gov. Hadjiman H. Salliman during a reconciliation rite in Barangay Bukut-umus in Tabuan-Lasa.

The signatories to the compact printed on a tarpaulin, among them municipal leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front, also pledged then to thrive in peace again, in the presence of barangay officials and Muslim religious leaders in Tabuan-Lasa.

They sealed the agreement with a handshake and tight hugs after they each promised, before Brig. Gen. Alvin V. Luzon, commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade, Mr. Manisan and Mr. Salliman, to end their deadly squabbles for control of the territorial seas in Tabuan-Lasa where their followers catch blue and yellow fin tunas that they sell to retailers in markets in different towns in Basilan. — John Felix M. Unson

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