COTABATO CITY (October 19, 2026) — Another ethnic Teduray chieftain was killed in an ambush on Saturday, October 17, in Maguindanao del Sur, reported by tribespeople and local leaders as the 41st fatality, from the tribe’s leadership core, in brazen attacks since 2013, all unsolved.

The spate of the seemingly unending killings of ethnic Teduray community leaders had markedly escalated despite the Bangsamoro regional government having its Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs since 2019, tasked to ensure the welfare and protection of all non-Moro indigenous communities in the autonomous region.

Tribal leaders and Teduray employees of different agencies in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and officials of police units in Maguindanao del Sur and in the Army’s 6th Infantry Division separately told reporters on Monday the Joel Mactud, a known peace advocate, died instantly in an attack last Saturday by gunmen at a stretch of a highway in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao del Sur.

Mactud and his three male tribemates were riding separate motorcycles, on their way to home to the hinterland Barangay Mantao in Datu Hoffer from Upi, Maguindanao del Norte, when he was attacked by gunmen at a secluded stretch of their route, killing him instantly.

The killers of Mactud, also a member of the barangay council in Mantao, escaped using getaway motorcycles, leaving him sprawled on the road, lifeless.

Peace-advocacy groups of Tedurays in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City, which is the regional capital of BARMM, had separately urged local executives in the adjoining Datu Hoffer, Datu Unsay Ampatuan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Shariff Aguak towns towns, the officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Army’s 6th th Infantry Division work together in putting a closure to the brutal murder of Mactud.

Mactud was active in programs promoting cultural and religious solidarity among the culturally-diverse Moro and the ethnic Teduray communities in Datu Hoffer where their tribe has state-recognized ancestral domains.

Compiled records obtained from different local government units, from municipal police stations and from PRO-BAR indicate that Mactud was the 41st Teduray community leader killed by gunmen, in one attack after another since 2013, something that tribe members construe as a tacit attempt to force them out of their ancestral lands in Maguindanao del Sur, suitable for large-scale propagation of orchard, oil palm and coconut trees.

The killings of Teduray community leaders in Maguindanao del Sur heightened after talks have spread around that mining engineers and geologists had reportedly established, via clandestine studies some nine years ago, that their ancestral lands in the province have vast deposits of copper and gold, awaiting extraction.

Up to 11 Teduray community leaders in Datu Hoffer alone were reportedly killed in separate attacks in the past five years, all unsolved.

Photo shows the slain Mactud, whose death in the hands of murderers saddened the Teduray community in BARMM, whose leaders says they are in a situation needing extensive interventions by the national and Bangsamoro government, the police and the military.