Mangudadatu helps settle shattered ‘rido’

BULUAN, Maguindanao – Authorities here have been able to mend a settlement between two warring Moro clans that was recently shattered by a vendetta attack by one of its members.

Officials of the Maguindanao Task Force on Reconciliation and Unification (MTFRU), chaired by Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, were able to intercede in settling a “rido” or family feud, between the Tambungan and Mamalapat clans.

In the settlement Mangudadatu and MTFRU helped forge, the Tambungan clan agreed to play “blood money” of P600,000 for the killing of a member of the Mamalapat family last month.

The fatality was identified as Ustaz Kuti Dibalatun, an elected barangay councilman and a member of the Mamalapat family, while his assailant was named as Zainodin Ayob Abdul, a member of the Tambungan clan.

MTFRU officials and leaders of the two protagonist families no longer discussed the reason behind the broken settlement.

The governor presided over the renewed rido settlement at his office here last September 4 with other MTFRU officials and Col. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, attending as witnesses.

He ceremonially turned over to a representative leader of the Mamalapat family the P600,000 bloody money that will be turned over to the family of Dibalatum.