2 cops dead, 4 hurt in Maguindanao del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY --- Suspected members of a local terrorist group killed two policemen and wounded four others in an ambush on Wednesday night in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao del Sur.

Brig. Allan C. Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, identified the fatalities as Patrolman Saipoden S. Macacuna and Patrolman Bryan D. Polayagan, who both died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

The duo, both members of a police company under the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, and their companions were returning to their barracks in Camp Akilan Ampatuan in Shariff Aguak from a nighttime security mission when gunmen, positioned along the route, opened fire with M16 rifles, killing Macacona and Polayagan on the spot.

Four others, Patrolman Arjie Val Loie C.  Pabinguit, Patrolman Abdulgafor H. Alib, Staff Sgt. Benjie R. Delos Reyes and Chief Master Sgt. Rey Vincent B. Gertos got wounded in the attack, now confined in a hospital.

Shariff Aguak is close to hinterlands where there is presence of the allies Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Dawlah Islamiya, both operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and have a reputation of bombing public transportations and establishments if owners refuse to shell out “protection money” on a monthly basis.

Nobleza said local officials and traditional Moro leaders in Shariff Aguak have assured to help probers identify the gunmen behind the deadly ambush that triggered panic among villagers.