Dowry feud: Villager in southern Philippines kills father-in-law, children after wife abandons him
Violent clan feuds fuel violence in lawless Philippines province
A distraught villager shot and killed his father-in-law and three children on Monday over a dowry feud in the southern Philippines, police and military officials said.
The attack happened after midnight in the remote town of Banguigui in Sulu province, a group of islands in the country's southernmost region, police said.
The attacker was abandoned by his wife, prompting him to demand that her family return the dowry he had given her parents, but the parents failed to immediately comply, Sulu police chief Senior Superintendent Mario Buyuccan said, adding that the attacker and two other gunmen escaped.
Clan feuds have often turned violent in Sulu, where poverty, large numbers of unlicensed firearms and weak law enforcement have combined to foster lawlessness and a decades-long Muslim rebellion.
