Cotabato City LGU disaster response official dies in ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed the operations chief of the Cotabato City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office in an ambush here on Friday night, an incident that saddened the personnel of different government and private volunteer emergency response contingents he was closely associated with.

Col. Querubin Manalang Jr., director of the Cotabato City police, said on Friday that Jose Raymond Marquez, most known here by his nickname Choco, was on his way home on a motorcycle when he was attacked near a gasoline station at the intersection of the Sinsuat Avenue and Luna Street here.

The 42-year-old Marquez, a scion of the Ante and Marquez clans that are both among the city's pioneer Catholic clans, was operations chief of the CDRRMO under the office of Cotabato City Mayor Mohammad Ali Matabalao.

His attackers, armed with .45 caliber pistols, immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles, according to witnesses.  

"Police investigators found at least three empty shells of .45 caliber ammunition in the crime scene," Manalang said.

The gun attack that resulted in the death of Marquez was preceded by the near fatal ambush here on Aug. 14, 2023 of the chief of the city government's general services office, Pedro Tato Jr., that left his driver, Dandy Anonat, also wounded.

The gunmen behind the crime that left Tato and Anonat wounded were also armed with .45 caliber pistols. 

The duo was ambushed at a stretch of thoroughfare along the fenced compound here of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center. The local police tried its best, but failed to put a closure to the incident. 

Matabalao, a first-termer mayor who is presiding chairperson of Cotabato City's multi-sector peace and order council, has condemned Friday's murder of Marquez and urged the local police to identify his killers for prosecution.