North Cotabato's civil security chief, aide killed

KIDAPAWAN CITY -– Three unidentified gunmen shot
dead the chief security of North Cotabato provincial capitol in front of a
Catholic Church in Arakan, North Cotabato Sunday, police said.

Chief Insp. Felix Fornan, Arakan town police chief, said
Bernabe Abanilla, chief of the Civil Security Unit of North Cotabato’s provincial
capitol grounds, had just arrived in front of the Church on board his Mitsubishi
Strada pick-up vehicle with a companion when gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at
about 8 a.m.

Fornan said in a phone interview thatAbanilla and his companion, identified as alias Degul
Semillano, both residents of Barangay Doruloman, Arakan, North Cotabato, were still
breathing when Churchgoers and villages rushed them to the hospital where they
were declared dead on arrival due to multiple gunshot wounds in the head and
body.

He was about to enter the Church when the suspects on motorbike
opened fire,” Fornan said, quoting witnesses.

Police recovered empty shells for cal. 45 pistol at the
crime scene.

Manhunt has been going. (Edwin O. Fernandez)