2 soldiers arrested after shooting motorist in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two soldiers landed in jail after one of them had shot and wounded a motorcycle-riding civilian in a gun attack before dawn Thursday, October 29, in Barangay South Manuangan in Pigcawayan town in Cotabato province.

The victim, Datu Albana Mascud Samod, who was hit by a pistol bullet in his right upper arm, is now confined to a hospital.

Col. Rammel Hojilla, director of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office, told reporters at noon Thursday that Samod’s alleged attackers, Cpl. Jackson Sedigo Arabis and Private 1st Class Jobert Fillalan Samperoy, both belong to the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion.

Their battalion headquarters is in Barangay Pigkalagan in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao del Norte, not too distant from the town center of Pigcawayan.

Local executives said Samod was riding his Yamaha NMAX motorcycle, on his way somewhere, when he was shot from behind by one of the two motorcycle-riding soldiers trailing behind.

Local executives had told reporters that pursuing policemen had cornered the two soldiers at a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Presbitero in Pigcawayan, one of the 17 towns in Cotabato province in Region 12.

Hojilla said policemen had seized from Arabis and Samperoy a .45 caliber pistol each and impounded their Honda RS 150 motorcycle too.

Hojilla and local executives in Pigcawayan had separately told reporters that police investigators are still trying to establish their motive for perpetrating the atrocity that left Samod wounded.