COTABATO CITY – The Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RRUC-ARMM) is holding a three-day conference on ‘rido’ settlement.
The event aims at generating insights and recommendations from different actors that could help resolve rido-related problems in the region. The conference, held here, started on Wednesday, October 19, and would last until Friday, October 21.
Among the participants are representatives from local government units, line agencies, civil society organizations, government security forces, and revolutionary groups specifically the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front. These groups have different data on rido and have different approaches in settling clan conflicts.
Romeo Sema, chairman of RRUC-ARMM, said there’s a need for a better way to settle family conflicts. “We want to have a consolidated data on the number of rido cases and we aim to have coordinative mechanisms to settle these ridos,” Sema said.
He also noted that the regional government will be able to have a complete look at the rido situation in the ARMM and that RRUC, being an advisory body to the regional governor, will be able to recommend policy-related solutions to this problem.
The book ‘Rido: Clan Feuding and Conflict Management in Mindanao’ written by Wilfredo Magno Torres III defined rido as a conflict characterized by sporadic outburst of retaliatory violence between families and kinship groups as well as between communities.
Abdulbasit Benito, RRUC-ARMM executive director, said rido causes problems not only between conflicting families but in the community as well. “Rido causes much suffering, numerous casualties, destruction of properties, and it cripples the economy and displaces the community,” Benito said.
Data from RRUC-ARMM showed there were 269 cases of rido in the ARMM from 2012 until October 2016. But the ARMM’s Police Regional Office reports there were only 209 cases during the same period in the region.
Benito said the main causes of rido are election-related conflicts, land ownership conflicts, crimes against chastity, personal grudge and theft. He added that even jesting, suspicion, and mere misunderstanding could also cause rido.
“We will continue working with these actors to help settle rido and prevent it from recurring,” RRUC-ARMM chairman Sema said. (Bureau of Public Information)
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