Moro lawyer campaigning for BOL ratification killed in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO - A gunman shot dead Wednesday while inside a passenger van a lawyer campaigning for the ratification via a plebiscite on January 21 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the 48-year-old Nasser Laban died instantly from bullet wounds in the head.His killer, who was armed with a pistol, was also a passenger in the same vehicle, en route to Cotabato City from Sultan Kudarat province.The suspect first asked the driver of the van to pull over while at a secluded stretch of the highway in Barangay Meta in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao, pulled out a pistol and fired at Laban.He alighted from the van, ran to a motorcycle parked nearby and sped away along with its unidentified driver. The suspect also shot and seriously wounded van driver Kaliman Sangkad, 43, before his quick dash to the getaway motorcycle. Mijares said Senior Superintendent Madzgani Mukaram, Maguindanao’s provincial police director, is now personally overseeing the investigation on the incident.The slain Moro lawyer had moved around central Mindanao extensively the past weeks to participate and endorse in public consultations the Bangsamoro Organic Law, or BOL.The BOL is the enabling measure for the replacement of ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, if approved via a referendum involving voters in its proposed core territory on January 21 next year.The BOL was premised on two peace compacts between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front --- the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.