Ambush incident triggers tension in Malabang town
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 10:15 AM Thu Feb 11, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Ambush fatality Rauf Malawani, an uncle of Malabang Mayor Tomas Macapodi. (From Office of Mayor Macapodi)
LANAO DEL SUR --- Tension has spread around the now supposedly booming and peaceful Malabang town following the fatal ambush of an uncle of its mayor Wednesday.
Rauf Malawani, uncle of the first-termer Mayor Tomas Macapodi of Malabang, Lanao del Sur, died on the spot from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
The victim, a Maranao community leader, campaigned extensively for Macapodi when he first aspired for Malabang’s mayoral post during the May 2019 elections.
Relatives of Malawani are certain he was killed to drag the Macapodi clan into a “rido” (clan war) to derail his bid for a second term during the forthcoming 2021 local polls.
“I have called on my relatives and political supporters to stand down and let the police identify and prosecute the culprits. We must let the law prevail and take its course. The culprits must be prosecuted properly,” Macapodi said in an online message Thursday to reporters.
Malabang, a seaside town in the second district of Lanao del Sur, was locked in deadly clan wars and underdevelopment before Macapodi got to the helm of its local government in 2019.
Among his pioneering projects as a neophyte mayor was the setting up of security cameras in strategic spots in the municipal center of Malabang to deter gun attacks and clashes among feuding families.
Malawani was on his way home from Marawi City when his attackers, armed with pistols and assault rifles and on board three pick-up trucks, blocked his route while his vehicle was motoring through Bacayawan area in Malabang and opened fire, killing him on the spot.
Witnesses have identified his attackers but declined to talk to reporters for fear of reprisals.
The suspects managed to escape even before responding personnel of the Malabang municipal police station could reach the scene.
Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region said Thursday he has directed the Malabang municipal police and the Lanao del Sur provincial police to identify the killers of Malawani for prosecution.
Rodriguez said he had urged relatives of Malawani to refrain from retaliating and allow the police to put closure to the incident instead.
Lanao del Sur province accounts for most cases of clan wars --- sparked either by affronts on Maranao “maratabat,” or family pride and honor, or land disputes, or political squabbles ---- in all of the Bangsamoro region’s five provinces and three cities.