2 dead, 6 hurt in Maguindanao del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two commuters in a passenger van were killed while six others were wounded in an ambush in Barangay Bagan, Guindulungan, Maguindanao del Sur, on Monday night, August 25.

Ranking officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office told reporters on Tuesday, August 26, that the two fatalities were among the 14 passengers of a black van from Cotabato City that gunmen strafed with assault rifles while its driver was maneuvering through a stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Barangay Bagan.

Police investigators and barangay officials said the van passengers were from Cotabato City and were en route to another destination when the attackers, positioned along the route, opened fire, killing one of them, ethnic Maguindanaon Datu Mazks Mamo, instantly.

Another passenger, Datu Allan Mamo, was declared dead on arrival by physicians at the provincial hospital in nearby Shariff Aguak town, where emergency responders brought him and six wounded companions for treatment.

Local executives said the van’s driver managed to steer the bullet-riddled vehicle away from the ambush site and stopped near the municipal police station of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, enabling on-duty policemen to promptly transport the wounded passengers to a hospital, including Datu Allan, who later succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds.

Barangay officials in Bagan said the armed men escaped immediately using a getaway black minivan.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters he has directed provincial police officials in Maguindanao del Sur to work with local officials in Guindulungan and Datu Saudi Ampatuan to identify the perpetrators for immediate prosecution.