ARMM gov's staff killed, 2 councilors injured in Maguindanao ambush

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Updated 4:27 p.m.) — A member of the staff of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was killed while two municipal councilors in South Upi town were hurt in an ambush Saturday.

Betsy Yap, an employee of ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team, was declared dead on arrival at a hospital in nearby Cotabato City.

Yap's mother, Beatrize Beling Yap and companions, Reymundo Kinlat, Jonathan Layson and Crispin Beling, were wounded in the attack.

The older Yap and Kinlat are both municipal councilors of South Upi, a politically-troubled town in the second district of Maguindanao.

South Upi has two mayors, one elected during the May 16 polls and another declared mayor early this year by a Marawi City court based on an election protest.

The victims were on the way to Cotabato City from South Upi when gunmen trailing behind overtook and opened fire while at a secluded stretch of a highway in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, also in Maguindanao.

The scene of the ambush is not too distant from Camp Siongco, the command center of the 6th Infantry Division, the largest military unit in central Mindanao.

The 6th ID is helping the Commission on Elections impose a ban on carrying of firearms in connection with the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Hataman, chairman of the ARMM's regional peace and order council, condemned the incident.

He said he has ordered the Police Regional Office-ARMM to investigate the incident, identify the culprits and prosecute them to the fullest extent of law.