2 barangay officials killed in Cotabato gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — An incumbent barangay councilor and his brother, who is the cashier and bookkeeper of their barangay government, were shot dead amid an overnight community affair in Lower Paatan in Kabacan town in Cotabato province before dawn Wednesday, October 21.

The incident left an adolescent male badly wounded.

The fatalities, Bayan Patacpan Maganaka, barangay councilor in Lower Paatan, and his brother, Ibrahim Patacpan Maganaka, died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

Barangay officials and investigators from the Kabacan Municipal Police Station had separately told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the Maganakas and their 17-year-old companion were in a community merry-making event in Purok Liwliwa in Barangay Lower Paatan when they were attacked by men armed with pistols.

Their assailants immediately escaped, leaving them both sprawled on the concrete barangay road straddling through the area, lifeless.

Kabacan Mayor Evangeline Pascua-Guzman said barangay officials and investigators from their municipal police force are cooperating in putting a close to the incident.

Policemen and soldiers from an Army unit securing Kabacan, one of 17 towns in Cotabato, are together trying to locate the culprits.