AMBUSHED. The bullet-riddled police patrol car of Binidayan Municipal Station after an ambush in Pagayawan, Lanao del Sur, past 6 p.m. Monday (Dec. 23). The town police chief, Executive Master Sgt. Amen Lucman Macalangan, and his driver, died on the spot. (Photo courtesy of Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office)
ILIGAN CITY --A police chief and his driver were killed during an ambush by armed men past 6 p.m. Monday Pagayawan town, Lanao del Sur, an official said.
Lanao del Sur police director, Col. Madzgani Mukaram, identified the police officer as Executive Master Sgt. Amen Lucman Macalangan, the police chief of Binidayan town, while the driver is identified as Ramel Pangcatan.
Murakam said their two companions on the vehicle--police non-uniform personnel Asliah Adiong and another police, Patrolman Nasser Arafat-- were unhurt.
Mukaram said the victims were returning to Binidayan from a weekly oversight meeting at the provincial police headquarters in Marawi City when they were waylaid.
The ambush area, LtC. Ian Noel Ignes, commander of the Army's 55th Infantry Battalion said, is a national road that is 400 to 500 meters from a Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit detachment.
Ignes said few days after Macalangan was assigned as officer-in-charge of the Binidayan town police, the latter had sought help from the military after he received threats that his police station would be harassed because of the smuggled cigarettes and illegal logs the police had seized.
Mukaram said the owner of the confiscated smuggled cigarettes is now a person of interest in the case. (PNA)
