COTABATO CITY — Gunmen burned down on Monday a health center and seven houses in Barangay Malingao in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur whose occupants had earlier fled due to a shooting incident.
Municipal officials and barangay leaders told reporters on Tuesday that more than 200 villagers in Barangay Malingao were forced to relocate to safer areas two days before the fire after the same group shot their houses with M16 and M14 assault rifles.
Police investigators and traditional Moro leaders said the arson attack was meant to embarrass re-electionist Mayor Akmad A. Ampatuan, Sr., who is chairman of the multi-sector Shariff Aguak Municipal Peace and Order Council.
Army and police officials said they are investigating the assertions by displaced villagers that their mayor’s bid for a second term is being contested by a candidate who has armed followers that do not belong to either the Moro National Liberation Front, or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Both fronts have separate peace agreements with the national government.
“Actually, the villagers affected by these troubles are identified with the MILF,” the vice-mayor of Shariff Aguak, Marop B. Ampatuan, said.
Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters that intelligence agents from the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and personnel of the Shariff Aguak Municipal Police Station are cooperating in identifying the gunmen behind the atrocities for prosecution. — John Felix M. Unson
