Bukidnon tribal wedding turns deadly
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A pregnant woman was killed, while seven others, including five minors, were wounded when a group of armed men fired at a crowd attending a tribal wedding ceremony in a village in Bukidnon, police said Sunday morning.
According to Police Regional Office spokesperson Supt. Surki Serenas, the incident took place in Sitio Tibugawan, Barangay Kawayan in San Fernando, Bukidnon last Saturday.
Killed on-the-spot was Makinit Gayoran, who was in the first months of her pregnancy, while seven community members, including three teenagers, and two boys aged 7 and 8, were wounded and brought to the hospital.
Serenas said the shooting could have been part of a tribal war, locally known as “manggahat” or “pangayaw,” between the group of Aldie Salusad, alias “Butsoy,” and other lumad folk known to be sympathetic or even members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
According to a witness, a teacher of the Rural Missionaries of the PhilippinesNorthern Mindanao Region (RMP-NMR), the wedding ceremony was about to end when “the rain of bullets started.”
The RMP-NMR has a literacy and numeracy school in Kawayan.
“They fired at the entire community, but concentrated at the house where around 80 individuals were gathered for the wedding,” the witness said.
Gayoran was reportedly hit in the chest, causing her instantaneous death, the witness added.
Serenas said the San Fernando police, some town officials and an indigenous peoples representative have already gone to the remote village in an effort to intercede and settle the feud.
“Datu Cris Linsagan, municipal tribal chieftain, made initial move so that the problem will not (escalate),” Sereñas said, adding that “the Army will be on standby, if needed.”
RMP-NMR, Datu Arnold Manhura, the IP Mandatory Representative in Kawayan, had met with Salusad before the shooting incident in Sitio Spring, and pleaded with him not to disrupt the wedding.
Salusad, dressed in military camouflage and combat shoes, was fully armed and was accompanied by at least 11 other armed men when Manhura met him on the road.
“They (Salusad and his men) also brought with them two residents from Sitio Spring and Sitio Tibugawan tied with a rope, (and were) forced to guide the group,” RMP-NMR quoted Manhura as saying.
A few minutes after talking to Salusad, Manhura said the armed group started firing indiscriminately at the house where the wedding was held.
RMP-NMR said Salusad’s group has allegedly been terrorizing the tribal communities in San Fernando for several years now.