TIMRA Reports

COTABATO CITY --- Two marketgoers were killed while three others were badly hurt when a mentally-deranged man drove an Army patrol truck parked along a street in the Bangkerohan market in Davao City and rammed pedestrians on Sunday morning, damaging a number of vehicles on the path too.

Radio reports here, citing an initial statement from the Davao City Police Office released in less than two hours after the incident, identified the fatalities two as Jamie Lopez Cole, 63, and the 34-year-old Rocel Luna Haspe, who both died on the spot.

MANILA – A member of the police’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) was injured in an ambush by still unidentified attackers in Sulu province on Thursday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Friday.

In a statement, SAF chief Maj. Gen. Bernard Banac said a team of commandos led by Capt. Mohammadizar Misuari was on an administrative-related movement when a group of armed assailants opened fire at them in Barangay Karungdong in Caluang town at around 11:45 a.m.

The team managed to stand its ground and forced the attackers to withdraw.

COTABATO CITY - Up to 12,846 indigent elderly residents of Tawi-Tawi province in the far south received a P3,000 pension grant each from the national government, channeled through a Bangsamoro social welfare agency. 

The Ministry of Social Services and Development-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is the conduit for all of BARMM’s six provinces of the social pension program of the central office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

COTABATO CITY - A father and son from a family reportedly locked in a land dispute with relatives perished in an ambush in General Santos City on Friday.

The General Santos City Police, in a report on Saturday to Region 12 police director Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, said that the fatalities, Rafael Dela Merced, 52, and his 28-year-old son, Jhonnel, both died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

COTABATO CITY - Two men on a motorcycle on Friday shot dead an employee of a power cooperative in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and wounded another while they were to cut a line connected to a house whose owner has accumulated unpaid bills.

The Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police, in a report on Saturday to the office here of Bangsamoro regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, stated that Tawi-Tawi Electric Cooperative employee Ali Gustami died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

COTABATO CITY - A motorist died instantly while a driver and eight commuters were seriously hurt in an accident involving a motorcycle, a passenger van, and a petroleum tanker in Digos City in Davao del Sur at about noon Tuesday.

In an official report dispatched to media outfits Wednesday, the Davao del Sur Provincial Police Office said a van, driven by Roy Eligrino, first hit sideway the large tanker truck, or lorry, while overtaking at a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Matti in Digos City.

COTABATO CITY - Police agents arrested a fireman long known for asking money from applicants to the Bureau of Fire Protection during a P400,000 cash payoff by a supposed victim who helped entrap him in Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur on Monday.

Officials of the Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office-9 told reporters on Tuesday that FO3 Jesson Albios Casanes voluntarily turned himself in when policemen frisked and cuffed him after receiving the money in a sting on Monday in Purok Crossing in Barangay Sicade in Kumalarang.

COTABATO CITY - Two militiamen were killed while another was badly hurt in a roadside bombing in Barangay Limbo Candiis in Sumisip town in Basilan at past noontime on Monday.

Brig. Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army’s 101^st Infantry Brigade, and the Basilan Provincial Police Office separately confirmed on Monday afternoon that two members of the Citizens Auxiliary Army, a state paramilitary group, were killed in the incident.

Luzon said the explosion left another militiaman badly injured.

COTABATO CITY - Some 400 tall trees were felled - damaging electric posts and a number of houses made of light materials - as extraordinarily strong winds pummeled parts of Basilan at about dusk Thursday.

Local officials in Lamitan City reported on Friday that two members of a Muslim family in the seaside Barangay Calugusan were hurt when a tall coconut tree broken in the middle by the powerful winds landed on their house.

Personnel of the Lamitan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said cottages along the beachfront resorts in Calugusan were also damaged.

COTABATO CITY - The mayor of the earthquake-stricken General Santos City extended indefinitely the suspension of classes in all schools covered by their city government that were supposed to resume Wednesday.

Mayor Lorelie Pacquiao ordered on Tuesday the extension of the shutdown of all schools in the city, a directive superseding her earlier order for the resumption of classes on Wednesday.

Pacquiao ordered the closure of all schools in General Santos City immediately after Friday’s strong tremor that jolted the area and nearby provinces.