Troops Tighten Security In North Cotabato Town After Mayor Is Linked To Attack

COTABATO CITY (Juan Magtanggol / 03 Nov) – Government troops have tightened security Saturday in North Cotabato province in the southern Philippines after the regional police held a town mayor and implicated him in the killing of five people, officials said.

Officials said the soldiers were sent to Banisilan town where the local mayor Floro Allado and his bodyguards allegedly opened fire on a group of civilians on Thursday.

All members of the town’s police force were also sacked for allegedly trying to cover up the crime. The town’s police earlier reported that Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels were behind the attack.

“We have troops in the area. We don’t want any future hostilities breaking out between feuding groups,” Brig. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said North Cotabato governor Emmanuel Pinol ordered the regional police to take Floro in custody and investigate the shooting. The military earlier said unidentified gunmen attacked the civilians near the Banisilan municipal hall, but the assailants turned out to be bodyguards of the mayor.

“There is an investigation going on about the motive of the attacks, but we suspect it had something to do with local politics and family feud,” Pajarito said.

The MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence in the south, had previously denied involvement in the attack.

A rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the accusation and said the attack was connected to a family feud. "We have reports saying that the attack was connected to a family feud and had something to do also with local politics," he said.The MILF is currently negotiating peace with the government. (Mindanao Examiner)