Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur—Hundreds have fled an interior village here since two armed groups clashed on Wednesday afternoon over conflicting claims of land ownership.
Schoolchildren were seen running for safety on their way to afternoon classes, as exchanges of gunfire were heard from all over Barangay Kilangan in this town.
Residents said the death toll rose to 21 from 19 when armed relatives of Engineer Datu Alonto Sultan clashed with armed men under Ikot Dandua alias Commander Bawsi.
Pagalungan Municipal Police Station Chief Datumasla Mangalangkat said the initial probe pointed to an instance of land dispute as the root cause of the conflict between the two groups.
Relatives of both sides confirmed that fatalities have reached 21 from 19—17 from the group of Sultan and two from the side of Bawsi.
Interviewed over a local radio station, Sultan said his group was escorted by military personnel to the area that he claimed to legally own with a land title. As the military personnel left the area, gunfire erupted between the two groups, according to reports cited by authorities.
Bawsi, for his part, told reporters that his ancestors, not Sultan’s, owned the contested land.
