source: PNA.gov.ph
Acting Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao called on Muslims in the region locked in family feud to settle their differences through sports and not through guns.
As the celebrates Family Week and Month of Peace this September, Hataman said most cases of conflict in predominantly Muslim areas are rooted on "rido" (family feud) which is often likened to martial law that was signed on September 21, 1972.
Hataman recalled that former President Ferdinand Marcos made public his declaration of martial law over a nationwide telecast on September 23, that year.
During martial law years, he said the country's military prefer resolution of conflict through the use of guns.
Hataman said that in one village in Sumisip, Basilan dozens were killed in a family feud that started with a simple altercation when a man, whose cloth got soiled by a passing tricycle, shot the driver dead.
The same day, the relatives of the slain man retaliated and slaughtered three more persons -- the man who shot the tricycle driver and two of his relatives, Hataman recalled.
Hataman challenged families locked in decades-old political or land disputes to instead fight it out in sports events that the regional government has organized in celebration of the peace month and family week.
Earlier, ARMM Assemblywoman Samira Gutoc said in the countdown to the election fever in October that political clans and families should end political feuds.
"Why not consult each other through intermediaries before filing of candidacies so that violence can be ended," she urged would-be-candidates.
In Moro tradition, Gutoc said cool-headed emissaries are sent to mediate parties in conflict.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has declared September 22-30 as Family Week, while the region also joins the observance of the Month of Peace, holding various sports events participated in by employees of its agencies.
Hataman’s office and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-ARMM) gathered hundreds of employees at the Shariff Kabunsuan Complex here for a family week being celebrated with the theme “Ensuring Work-Family Balance.â€
Gutoc warned that vendetta killings resulting from cases of rido which are still prevalent in some parts of the region can hamper reform programs in the new ARMM.
She recalled that three persons were killed during the week-long re-registration period on July 9-18, because of cases of pre-election period disputes.
"Political violence in ARMM affects children's futures and will always bring us back to ground zero," she said.
Family and clan feuds, known locally as rido, are characterized by sporadic outbursts of retaliatory violence between families and kinship groups, as well as between communities, she explained.
"Without clans supporting reform in ARMM, breakthroughs in corruption cannot be overcome. We in ARMM have strong family ties. In the hierarchy of influences, the family is second to Almighty God. Thus, I firmly believe reform within the family can reform the society, as well," Gutoc said.
She added that political leaders must help in voter's education by supporting the ulama in spreading sermons about values of unity and good governance.
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