COTABATO CITY – The North Cotabato police has stepped up its visibility in Kidapawan City and the 17 municipalities of the province on Thursday following the resurgence of riding-in-tandem gunmen preying on hapless civilian victims in the area.
Col. Maximo Layugan, provincial police director, issued the directive following the separate incidence of shooting carried out by lawless riding-in-tandems in the towns of Kabacan and Pikit on Wednesday.
In Kabacan town, spouses Danny and Jonna Racquel were aboard a motorbike going to the town public market when tailed and fired upon by gunmen onboard a separate motorcycle along Maria Clara Street at the Poblacion around 4:30 a.m.
“Jonna was dead declared on arrival at the hospital while Danny remains under close observation in the same infirmary,” Major Realan Mamon, Kabacan police chief, said in a report to Layugan.
Found at the crime scene were empty shells for a .45-caliber pistol. Police investigators are still digging deeper into the case.
Meanwhile, shortly before midnight on the same day, gunmen onboard a motorbike strafed a house in Barangay Silik, Pikit, killing a farmer-businessman and wounding his son in the process.
Capt. Mautin Pangandigan, Pikit police chief, identified the fatality in the incident as Ampog Tejiro, 55, while the wounded was Padido, his 27-year-old son.
The victims were inside their house when the riding-in-tandem zipped by and strafed them with bullets from an M16 Armalite rifle around 11:45 p.m.
Pangandigan said they are looking into personal grudge as a possible motive behind the incident.
Layugan directed the police offices of Kabacan and Pikit to quickly resolve the twin shooting incidents. (PNA)
