Three killed in Cotabato clash

Zamboanga City: At least three people were killed and five were wounded when armed men fired upon a group of civilians near the municipal hall of Banisilan in southern Philippines North Cotabato.

A belated report sent by Brigadier General Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Battalion, said that a group of gunmen opened fire on civilians on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding five others.

Earlier police reports had tagged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as responsible for the killing.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, however denied the involvement of his organisation in the attacks as he said that a certain Mayor Alfredo Allado of Alamado, North Cotabato is responsible for the killings.

"Reports reaching us point to Allado as the one who personally killed the three and wounded five others," he said.

"The incident is connected to a family feud and has something to do with politics; the victims are Muslims," he said.

The MILF is talking peace with the government but the five-year-old negotiations to end the fighting in Mindanao had recently failed over the issue of ancestral domains. Reports said the MILF is claiming inclusion of certain villages outside areas considered by Moros as their ancestral domain.

Kabalu welcomed a recent move by the government to exclude MILF Chief Murad Ebrahim from the list of suspects involved in the recent bomb attacks in Central Mindanao.

"We welcome the pronouncement, we can only wait the black and white [written order] to concretise the order," Kabalu said.

When asked whether the MILF is willing to return to negotiating table with the government, he said: "The issue here is whether they could present a workable formula related to the issue on territory under ancestral domain."