Traditional Moro leader, son killed in Matalam ambush
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 11:00 AM Mon Jul 31, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
The ambush fatalities are to be buried immediately according to Islamic rites. (From Alambai Buday)
COTABATO CITY - Gunmen killed a traditional Moro leader and his son in an ambush at dusk Sunday in a secluded area in Matalam town in North Cotabato, police said.
Lt. Colonel Ariel Melocotones, Matalam town police chief, told DXND that the victims were on board a motorbike heading for home when ambushed at past 6 p.m.
In his report to Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, PRO-12 regional director, Melocotones identified the fatalities as Anwar Ebrahim Salem, Sr., 52, and his 21-year-old son, Anwar Hudines Salem, Jr.
They were on their way to the town proper of Matalam from Barangay Arakan, when gunmen positioned along the route opened fire.
The older Salem, a former barangay chair and councilor in Arakan, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds while his son succumbed in a hospital Sunday night.
Salem is a member of the Bangsamoro Council of Moro Elders, which is involved in peacebuilding programs in areas with mixed Moro, Christian and ethnic tribal communities.
He was president of Matalam’s association of barangay chairpersons while serving as barangay chairman in Arakan for three consecutive terms and, subsequently, got elected as councilor in the same barangay during the 2018 elections.
Their attackers, faces covered with masks, managed to escape before responding barangay tanods could reach the scene.
Investigators in the Matalam Police Station are certain the ambush could be due to the possible involvement of the victims in a “rido,” which means clan war in most Moro vernaculars, or related to the forthcoming October 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.