Manila, Oct. 30 -- Government troops will stay in the town center to reassure residents that they are safe and protected, as they begin to return home after the recent fighting here between warring clans ended.

Brig. Gen. Frederick Sales, the Army's 101st Infantry Brigade commander, said Thursday that the troops deployed to defuse the tension in Barangay Tipo-Tipo Poblacion will remain in place until normalcy is fully restored.

"We'll just put them there for now. Of course, we still need to secure the area, because there's still a lot of speculation that the group will return," Sales said in an interview.

Sales and Col. Cerrazid Umabong, the provincial police director, visited and met with Mayor Ingatun Istarul on Wednesday at the town...