PAGADIAN CITY (MindaNews/1 November) – Rido (clan feud) continues to cause loss of lives and properties, displacement of people and the prevailing environment of fear in the Bangsamoro region, participants to a Bangsamoro visioning exercise here on October 31 said.
“Who among you here who were not internally displaced because of rido?” Sultan Maguid Maruhom asked some 60 Bangsamoro sectoral representatives in Zamboanga Peninsula.
His audience agreed that, at one time or another, they experienced displacement caused by rido.
Maruhom is a respected Muslim leader in Zamboanga Peninsula who facilitated the visioning exercise for the future Bangsamoro region.
Maruhom said the average life expectancy of a Moro is now pegged at 59 years old compared to the national average of 69 years old.
Among the factors cited for the low life expectancy are high poverty incidence, rebellion, violent extremism and rido.
Hadji Rasul Manggubat, a religious leader, said, “We feel safe when we travel on roads that are populated with Christians, but we do not feel safe at all when we travel roads that are populated with fellow Muslims,” implying the possibility of being caught in a crossfire between warring families.
Journalist Simone Orendain, in a report about rido in Mindanao years ago noted that rido may look like simply a feud between two families.
But on another level, she said, it may become a gang war between clans, as it involved not only the parents and their children but whole clans themselves.
The deadly fights can be attributed to power struggle, land disputes, or simply the preservation of one family’s “good name”, said the report.
The participants agreed that addressing the occurrences of rido should be the first step in achieving a peaceful and progressive Bangsamoro. (Pingping Deliverio/for MindaNews)
