Gunmen kill off-duty soldier in Maguindanao
Breaking News • 17:27 PM Thu Aug 27, 2015
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By:
Malu C. Manar and John Unson
Private 1st Class Hernando Daval of the 7th Infantry Battalion, killed in an ambush on August 26 in Datu Montawal, Maguindanao. (John Unson)
KIDAPAWAN CITY -Unidentified gunmen riding in motorcycle gunned down a member of the Philippine Army while on his way to Datu Montawal, Maguindanao, Wednesday, the second attack on state forces in five days.Authorities are still sifting through two crime scenes to
identify the culprits in the seemingly related gun attacks in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.
Inspector Rasul Pandulo, chief of the Datu Montawal Police, identified the victim as Private First Class Hernan Daval, member of the Alpha Company of the 7thInfantry Battalion based in Pikit town. Pandulo said Daval was driving his motorcycle on his way to his camp at Pikit, North Cotabato, when the suspects, also onboard a motorbike, pumped bullets into his head and in different parts of his body, using caliber 45 pistol. Daval died on the spot. Daval, according to his company commander, 2ndLieutenant Perez of the 7thIB, has been receiving death threats through his mobile phone. Lt. Perez, however, had no clues as to where the threats had come from. Pandulo said they have yet no confirmation as to whether the suspects were members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). That angle is very remote.We’re made to believe this is personal,” said the police officer. Police said they already turned over to the Crime Laboratory of the PNP in Maguindanao the empty shells they recovered from the crime scene to determine if the pistol used in killing was registered or one of the loose firearms proliferating in Mindanao.Senior Superintendent
Nickson Muksan, Maguindanao police provincial director,said investigators will file corresponding criminal cases
against the suspects once identified. The killing on Wednesday of a member of the Philippine Army in Maguindanao was the second this August.On August 20, a member of the militarywas also gunned down in Midsayap, North Cotabato.Cpl. Angelo Magtubo, of the 7thField Artillery Battalion, in civilian clothes,was driving his motorcycle on his way to a nearby store to buy cigarettes when flagged down by two suspects and opened fire at 3 p.m. Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6thInfantry
Division, said their division commander, Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, had
issued a directive restraining off-duty soldiers from going out of their camps
riding motorcycles.
Combatants of the 6thID and its component units in
Maguindanao and North Cotabato figured in extensive combat engagements with the
BIFF in the two provinces during the government’s March 28 to May 5 calibrated
police action against the bandit group.