5 killed in latest central Mindanao gun attacks
Peace and Order • 09:45 AM Wed Sep 18, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
SULTAN KUDARAT --- Five people, among them a barangay official, got killed in gun attacks in Central Mindanao in two days amid a government campaign against unauthorized carrying of firearms.
A woman also sustained a bullet wound when armed guests to a wedding in a remote barangay in Midsayap town in North Cotabato fired guns overhead in a revelry that scared villagers in farming enclaves nearby.
Tonton Ibad and son Mike were riding a tricycle on their way home to Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat from a court hearing Tuesday in nearby Tacurong City when gunmen blocked their route and opened fire, killing them both on the spot.
The attack also resulted in the death of tricycle driver Nhor Talib.
The culprits hurriedly escaped using motorcycles without license plates.
Ethnic Menufu farmer Neil Alud was sleeping in a makeshift shelter in the middle of his farm in Barangay Pisan in Kabacan town in North Cotabato when two men arrived and killed him using .45 caliber pistols in a daring attack Monday.
The incident was preceded by the murder of Parido Zukalnen in Barangay Tambunan in Guindulungan town in Maguindanao by a man armed with a .45 caliber pistol.
Zukalnen was secretary to the barangay chairman in Kalumamis also in Guindulungan town.
He was walking along a highway near the campus of the Tambunan Elementary School when the suspect trailing behind on a motorcycle shot him in the head and sped away.
Gunshot victim Niña Sendad, meanwhile, remained in a hospital since she was wounded in a reckless merry-making by gunmen during a traditional Moro wedding rite in Barangay Malingao in Midsayap, North Cotabato on Monday.
Sendad was one of about a hundred guests to the event, among them farmers carrying assault rifles.
One of the gunmen who fired in the air after the wedding ceremony could have accidentally pulled the trigger while raising a rifle and hit Sendad in her upper torso, according to witnesses.
Barangay officials said no one has claimed responsibility for the accident.