Security guard, brother hurt in South Cotabato ambush

COTABATO CITY — A security guard and his brother were seriously wounded in an ambush in a remote area of Polomolok town, South Cotabato, on Tuesday night, March 24.

Local executives and investigators from the Polomolok Municipal Police Station told reporters on Wednesday, March 25, that siblings Rolando Mata, a security guard, and Jessie Mata were riding a motorcycle together when they were attacked by gunmen on a dark, secluded stretch of road in Purok 2 in Barangay Polo in the municipality.

Mata works as a security guard at the sprawling pineapple plantation of Dole Philippines in Polomolok.

Both siblings sustained gunshot wounds to different parts of their bodies and were immediately transported by emergency responders to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Their assailants managed to immediately escape before responding policemen ang barangay officials could reach the scene.

Municipal police officials have theorized that the atrocity could be related to the tacit involvement of Mata and other security guards in the seizure in recent months of big volumes of pineapples stolen by thieves from the Dole Philippines plantation that spans through the adjoining Polomolok and Tupi towns in South Cotabato.

Investigators from the Polomolok police force, intelligence agents from the South Cotabato Provincial Police Office and municipal officials are working together to bring the case to a close.