Power cooperative employee killed, companion hurt in Tawi-Tawi gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two men on a motorcycle on Friday shot dead an employee of a power cooperative in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and wounded another while they were to cut a line connected to a house whose owner has accumulated unpaid bills.

The Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police, in a report on Saturday to the office here of Bangsamoro regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, stated that Tawi-Tawi Electric Cooperative employee Ali Gustami died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

His co-worker, Nassir Ambutong, was seriously wounded in the incident and was airlifted to a hospital in Zamboanga City, according to the Tawi-Tawi PPO’s report to the headquarters of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region here.

Gustami and Ambutong were to disconnect a power line providing electricity to a house in a village of employees and teachers in the vicinity of the Mindanao State University-Tawi-Tawi campus in Bongao, the capital town of the island province, when they were attacked by two men armed with pistols.

Their attackers, wearing ski masks, immediately escaped using their motorcycle without a license plate.

Nobleza told reporters in Cotabato City that he has directed the Tawi-Tawi PPO and the Bongao Municipal Police Station to cooperate in identifying the culprits for immediate prosecution.