Philippine Governor Mediates Feud Among 6 Muslim Clans

Officials from the Philippines' autonomous Muslim region and its one-time largest rebel group have successfully mediated an end to bloody feuds between six clans in the southern island province of Basilan.



Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) told Anadolu Agency in a text message Monday that leaders of the six Yakan tribe clans swore over the Qur'an on Sunday to end conflicts over land and political disputes.



"The leaders of these families broke bread and smoked the proverbial peace pipe in the presence of public officials and Islamic preachers," Hataman said.



He was joined by his brother Basilan Congressman Jim Hataman, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members and the military in brokering peace between the Palinta and Tukul families, the Abdulmuin and Aspali families, and the Sapaat and Aliman families in Sumisip township -- the Hatamans' hometown.



The elders of the clans – known for keeping firearms as status symbols and protection, with some members belonging to the MILF -- signed a peace covenant to live together according to Islamic principles in the symbolic reconciliation ceremony.



Since Hataman was elected to office in 2013, a total of 13 family feuds have been settled in Basilan.



While Hataman was headed to Sumisip for the settlement, a roadside bomb went off on a circumferential road in Tipo-Tipo town before his convoy passed the Lagayas-Cabangalan section.



The governor has not discounted that he may have been the target of the attack, which killed one of the soldiers securing the route for the Hatamans and other ARMM officials.



"I don't want to think the bomb was intended for me and my companions. I'm not discounting that possibility though," he told radio station dxMS over the phone Monday.



According to police reports, members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf – believed to be opposed to Hataman's peace efforts in Basilan -- had planted the bomb under a tree by the road.



Last month, a roadside bomb had exploded in another section of the highway several minutes after Hataman's convoy passed while headed to inspect infrastructure projects in the province's southwest.



Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.



Basilan and the nearby island province of Sulu, both known Abu Sayyaf strongholds, are part of the so-called Bangsamoro entity, a proposed autonomous region stipulated under a 2014 peace deal between the government and the MILF. - Zamboanga