ILIGAN CITY, Philippines?Common friends acting as intermediaries have begun reaching out to Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman Sr. for a possible out-of-court settlement of his sons' golf brawl with the Dela Paz family.

Speaking with reporters before the start of the Cabinet meeting at the Macaraeg-Macapagal ancestral house here, Pangandaman said on Tuesday he had received calls from these people seeking to mediate between his family and that of Delfin Dela Paz.

"Merong mga tumatawag?Merong mga lumapit (There are those who called and who approached me)," he said, but refused to name the so-called go-betweens.

Asked if his family was open to an amicable settlement, he replied: "I'm open to that, but I would like to emphasize that we did not instigate the incident."

"My sons were hurt and so were the Dela Pazes," he said.

Both families on Monday traded charges before the Antipolo city prosecutor's office over the December 26 brawl at the Valley Golf and Country Club.

The 56-year-old Dela Paz alleged that he and his 14-year-old son Bino were beaten up Pangandaman's sons Hussein, 30, and Nasser Jr., 27, the mayor of Masiu town in Lanao del Sur.

Hours after the incident, Dela Paz's 18-year-old daughter Bambee, a golf scholar in the United States, came out with a candid account of the brawl in a blog titled "The World Has Gone Crazy."

The account immediately triggered furious reactions on the Internet, generally condemning the Pangandamans by virtue of their being government officials.

Pangandaman purportedly did nothing to keep his sons and bodyguards from attacking the Dela Paz family.

The agrarian reform secretary reiterated on Tuesday his appeal for bloggers to go easy on his family, saying they were "very much affected by this."

"I'm extending my apologies in behalf of the family to the public for this very unfortunate incident that happened," he said. "There is already an ongoing investigation on this. Cases were filed already."

Despite the intense public attention on the incident, he said the controversy had not affected his position in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's Cabinet.

A few days before the brawl, he had been named to the new government peace panel formed to resume formal talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"What happened had no connection with my job," he said. "Right after the incident, I told what happened to the President."