Regional CSC official killed by stray bullet in Marawi City

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — A stray bullet killed an assistant regional director of the Civil Service Commission  on official business in Marawi City Thursday.

 

The 45-year-old Marvin Ablando died from a bullet wound in the head.

 

He was assistant director of the field office of the Civil Service Commission in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which is headquartered in Cotabato City.

 

Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Police Regional Office-ARMM, said Ablando and their director, Sandra Arnica Uzman were on their way to the provincial capitol of Lanao del Sur from the Mindanao State University in Marawi City when bullets hit their vehicle.

 

Uzman, 43, was slightly wounded in the forehead, according to Sindac.

 

Sindac said Ablando was rushed to the nearby Amai Pakpak Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival by attending physicians there.

 

“The driver told responding authorities that he heard burst of gunfire before a bullet hit the windshield,” Army Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said.

 

Ablando's remains were flown Cotabato City at around 1:30 p.m., she said.

 

Petinglay said the police and military on the ground were investigating if the victims were directly fired or were hit by stray bullet. — with a report from Roel Pareño in Zamboanga City