5 dead, 2 hurt in Zamboanga del Norte ambush
TIMRA Reports • 08:45 AM Fri Jan 27, 2023
393
By:
John M. Unson
The vehicle of the victims of Thursday’s ambush in Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte. (From Zamboanga del Norte PPO)
PAGADIAN CITY - A barangay chairman and four companions were killed in an ambush in Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte Thursday.
Col. Glen Dulawan, Zamboanga del Norte provincial police director, said Friday the likely target of the attack could be Allie Lomigues Manangca, chairman of Barangay Balubuan in Sirawai town in the third district of Zamboanga del Norte.
The ambush also left Manangca’s siblings Ani and Alfahad, a relative named Anisa Jaji Manangca, and a companion, Shilben Musaddin Basa, dead.
Two others, Alwaf Basa Manangca and Norman Darus Tulino, sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies.
Dulawan said the victims were together in a black Toyota Hilux pick-up truck when men armed with assault rifles, positioned along a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Piña, opened fire.
Barangay officials were quoted in radio reports as saying that the ambushers finished the victims off with more shots, targeting their heads and upper torso, before they escaped towards different directions.
Dulawan said personnel of the Sirawai Municipal Police Station and intelligence agents from the provincial police force are cooperating in identifying the culprits for prosecution.