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John Unson - Philstar.com
March 9, 2026 | 5:45pm
A peacekeeping team composed of policemen, soldiers and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are helping the Army's 6th Infantry Division totally disengage the two armed groups that repeatedly clashed at the border of two towns in Cotabato province last week.
Photo courtesy of Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY — Guns have been silent for two days along the border of Nabalawag and Midsayap towns in Cotabato, the site of deadly clashes last week between heavily armed Moro groups vying for control of strategic areas.
Officials of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade and the 6th Infantry Division separately told reporters on Monday, March 9, that the feuding groups, one identified with Nabalawag Mayor Renz Tukuran and the other, led by a certain Commander Kuntay, immediately disengaged and fled when soldiers came in on Friday to secure the areas where recent gunfights had forced over 2,000 villagers to flee.
Personnel from Army units under the 602nd Infantry Brigade, led by Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, seized more than 20 assault rifles, grenade launchers, a K3 machine gun, and an 81mm mortar last week. The weapons had been hastily abandoned by gunmen from both factions when soldiers approached from multiple directions.
Bunayog and his immediate superior, Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, told reporters that nine of the combat weapons were recovered from the home of Mayor Renz Tukuran during a search conducted in the presence of traditional Moro leaders.
Cagara, who also commands the 6th ID’s anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, added that all pacification operations in the conflict-affected barangays along the Midsayap–Nabalawag boundary are conducted in close coordination with the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
A large contingent from the Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST), composed of policemen, soldiers, and members of the MILF, was also deployed to prevent a repeat of last week’s deadly clashes between the two Moro groups.
The JPST is a joint police, military, and MILF peacekeeping force tasked with maintaining law and order in areas covered by the government and the 2014 peace agreement with the MILF.
Local officials and traditional Moro leaders mediating the conflict said that both factions lost two members each in the encounters along the Midsayap–Nabalawag boundary. Two innocent villagers were also killed in the crossfire.
