2 more killed in another Maguindanao del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two men riding a motorcycle together, one of them a known supporter of police law-enforcement activities, were killed in an ambush in Barangay Damawato in Datu Paglas town in the troubled Maguindanao province on Tuesday, April 14.

It was the 12th deadly ambush incident in Maguindanao del Sur since December last year, all unsolved due to the reluctance of potential witnesses to help build cases against known perpetrators.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, ordered on Wednesday all of their units in Datu Paglas and in nearby towns to enlist the help of local executives and traditional Moro community leaders in putting a speedy closure to the incident.

The victims in Tuesday’s ambush in Datu Paglas, Ibrahim Matukan Pigkaulan, and a companion, whose identity municipal police probers withheld in the meantime, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

Local executives and investigators from the Datu Paglas Municipal Police Station told reporters on Wednesday that Pigkaulan and his companion were riding a motorcycle together, on their way somewhere, when they were attacked by gunmen at a secluded stretch of a thoroughfare in Barangay Damawato.

Their attackers managed to escape before responding volunteer community watchmen and barangay officials could reach the scene.