COTABATO CITY (Sept. 26, 2023, John Unson) — It is the children now suffering most from displacement caused by Sunday’s attack by heavily armed men on Teduray enclaves in Sitio Tubaran in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.
Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters Wednesday that they are trying their best, along with the 6th Infantry Division to prevent a repeat of the incident.
“We will file cases against those responsible for the attack,” Nobleza said.
A Teduray member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, Froilyn Tenorio Mendoza, said Wednesday the evacuees from Sitio Tubaran need food, clothing and medicines for common ailments.
“Children got affected the most. They have stopped from their daily schooling. They need food and other relief provisions,” Mendoza said.
More than 300 ethnic Teduray families have abandoned their ancestral lands in Sitio Tubaran after gunmen shot their houses with assault rifles and forced them to leave at gunpoint in an attack early Sunday.
Nobleza and Army Major Gen. Alex Santos Rillera, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, separately announced on Monday that they have dispatched teams to investigate the incident.
Teduray evacuees said Monday men armed with M14 and M16 assault rifles arrived at their tribal dwelling enclaves in Sitio Tubaran in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte before dawn Sunday, opened fire and asked them to leave.
“We were forced to leave. We have no way but to give in because we can’t fight them. We are unarmed,” a Teduray farmer, who asked to be identified only as Moh Kedew for security reasons, told reporters Monday.
Rillera said barangay leaders in Labungan have provided Army intelligence agents with names of the men who led the attack, now being validated with the help of the local police.
The incident was preceded by the incursions by heavily armed men early this month into Teduray villages in two barangays in South Upi in Maguindanao del Sur, causing the displacement of no fewer than 300 poor families, still languishing in evacuation sites in the municipality since. (JF UNSON)
