AMBUSH SURVIVOR. Lone ambush survivor, Kimboy Fernalino, a Teduray indigenous community member, undergoes treatment at the hospital following their ambush on Wednesday night (June 26) with two other companions who died in the incident at Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan, Maguindanao. The fatalities in the ambush were Teduray community chieftain Orlando Santos, and his son Michael, both residents of Saniag village. (Photo courtesy of Ampatuan MPS)
COTABATO CITY – Police are in pursuit of armed men who ambushed and killed two persons, including an Indigenous People (IP) community leader, and seriously wounded another in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Wednesday night.
Major Gilbert Acorbo, Ampatuan police chief, identified the fatalities as Teduray IP chieftain Orlando Santos, and his son Michael, both of Barangay Saniag in the municipality.
The surviving victim, Kimboy Fernalino, was rushed by neighbors to the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital in neighboring Shariff Aguak town but later transferred to the Cotabato Regional Medical Center in this city.
The victims were onboard a motorbike around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday en route to Barangay Saniag when waylaid by still unidentified armed men.
“The motive of the attack is yet to be determined by our police investigators,” Acorbo said in a radio interview Friday.
Ampatuan Mayor Datu Rasul Sangki has scheduled a municipal emergency meeting following the incident.
In a separate radio interview, Minister Melanio Ulama of the Ministry of Indigenous People Affairs of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MIPA-BARMM) has called for sobriety in connection with the Barangay Saniag ambush.
He said the MIPA-BARMM is currently in close contact with Ampatuan town officials and police authorities to determine the cause of the incident.
“Rest assured that the IPs in the region are not neglected by the BARMM government. We are saddened by the incident and would like to get to the bottom of the problem to come up with appropriate solutions,” he said. (PNA)
