COTABATO CITY – Warring families in the borders of North Cotabato and Lanao del Sur were brought together on Friday to end their long-drawn “rido” (family feud).

Tears fell and excitement ran high after North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco, with the help of Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr., the Army’s 34th Infantry Battalion (34IB), and other local officials, successfully gathered the families who were locked in a decades-old clan war into the negotiating table in Banisilan, North Cotabato.

“I am very glad to be part of the settlement that reunited the families of Rajamuda, Mantitayan, Tidong,” Catamco said, referring to the families who live in Banisilan and the adjacent town of Wao in Lanao del Sur.