Couple, woman killed in separate gun attacks in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed a couple and a woman in separate attacks across two areas of Cotabato City within nine hours.

Bongabong Sangkad and his wife, Almira, large-scale dealers of spices and vegetables in Cotabato City markets, were shot and killed by an attacker with a pistol along the busy Jose Lim Sr. Street in Cotabato City on Wednesday afternoon, April 2.

Col. Jibin Bongcayao, the Cotabato City police director, said the victims were about to board their vehicle, which was parked at the side of the thoroughfare, when a man approached them, pulled out a pistol, and opened fire.

According to barangay officials and volunteer community watchmen who responded to the incident, the suspect and a male companion took Almira’s sling bag, which contained cash collections, along with her mobile phone, before fleeing the scene on a getaway motorcycle.

 The Sangkads, residents of Barangay Simuay in nearby Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte, were both declared dead on arrival by doctors in a hospital where emergency responders brought them for treatment.

Relatives of the slain couple in Sultan Kudarat are certain that robbery was not the motive for the attack that left both of them dead.

Sangkad and his wife reportedly have close relatives involved in a “rido,” or clan war, in Sultan Kudarat, one of the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte.

Around six hours later, a lone attacker shot dead Nadine Tanghal inside her live-in partner’s house in Barangay Rosary Heights 10 in Cotabato City before dawn Thursday.

Local officials told reporters Tanghal was killed just a few hours after her boyfriend was arrested in an anti-narcotics operation by personnel of the Cotabato City Police Office in the same barangay. 

They are certain she was killed to prevent her from potentially cooperating with investigators, whom they fear might interrogate her as well to determine her involvement in the drug trafficking activities of her now-detained boyfriend.