(First of two parts)
PIKIT, Cotabato—A barangay official seeks government protection from a security threat posed by an armed group following the Oct. 30 village elections.
According to Gulam Guimbalanan, village chairman of Barangay Kabasalan in Pikit, Cotabato, the armed group posing as a potential security threat would be a hindrance to the forthcoming gas exploration in Ligawasan Marsh.
The armed group operates on its own, and is not a part of the forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front deployed by the Bangsamoro local government to complement government forces in securing the gas project.
Guimbalanan said he also had to face allegations that he is a “relative” of a member of the extremist group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
Ironically, at least three of Guimbalanan’s family members or close relatives are members of the Philippine Army.
Guimbalanan’s family already wrote to the Peace and Reconciliation Development Office of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to seek help to pacify the situation in his barangay, an old riverside settlement.
They likewise encourage the armed supporters of the losing candidate to file a legal protest in the proper venue, rather than threatening elected village officials.
In late August, composite forces led by the Philippine Army troopers from the 90IB based in Pikit town were deployed toward the Mindanao River upstream.
Guimbalanan said he had offered two unfinished concrete government buildings in Kabasalan for the soldiers to settle in as the troopers have since been encamped in a more open space in Barangay Balibet.
Meanwhile, the counterpart contingent of the government forces from the MILF has already crossed the Mindanao River to help secure possible areas of operation for the exploration of oil resources beneath the beds of Ligawasan Marsh.