At least 14 killed in long-running land dispute between rebel clans in southern Philippines

COTABATO, Philippines -- At least 14 people were killed in a long-seething land dispute involving two Muslim guerrilla commanders and their followers in a southern Philippine town, military and civilian officials said Thursday.

The fighting erupted Wednesday between the two commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in a village in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao del Sur province but a truce has since been forged by the military, police and leaders of the rebel front.

The fighting was set off by a long-running land dispute between the clans of the two rebel commanders and was not directly related to the Muslim insurgency.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front was the largest Muslim separatist armed group in the southern Philippines, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation, until it signed a peace deal with the government in 2014 when it dropped its separatist goal and agreed to a better-funded Muslim autonomous region called Bangsamoro in the volatile south.

The six-province Muslim region is now governed by former rebel leaders in a transition arrangement prior to regular elections in May next year.

Thousands of guerrillas belonging to the rebel front, however, were still holding on to their firearms while awaiting amnesty and livelihood packages from the government under the peace deal.

Pagalungan town Vice Mayor Abdillah Mamasabulod said a long-running feud over a vast farmland involving two clans led by commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front erupted anew into fierce fighting Wednesday afternoon in the village of Kilangan.

"They have been fighting over ownership of about 290 hectares (716 acres) of agricultural land,” Mamasabulod told reporters and renewed a call for the warring clans to settle their dispute peacefully through government and rebel mediators.

Mamasabulod cited witnesses as saying that up to 19 people were killed in the sporadic fighting and scores were wounded before a cease-fire was forged.

Army Lt. Col. Roden Orbon, spokesperson of the 6th Infantry Division, however, said at least 14 people were killed in the intermittent clashes in the village, where government forces were deployed to secure civilian villagers. Troops recovered five assault rifles at the scene of the fighting.

“The military and police are continuously conducting monitoring in all nearby hospitals and coordinating with the leadership of both warring groups to identify the still unidentified bodies,” Orbon said.

Dozens of villagers who fled at the height of the fighting were returning to their communities, he said.

The fighting is the latest reminder of the complex security problems that have long hounded the southern Philippines, which has bountiful resources and potential but has long been hamstrung by stark poverty, weak law enforcement, a large number of unlicensed firearms and an array of insurgents and outlaws.