CRIME SCENE. Police cordoned off the site where a village chair in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen on Tuesday (March 14, 2023). Police probers have yet to establish the motive and identities of the perpetrators. (Photo courtesy of Maguindanao PPO)
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur – A village chairperson in Maguindanao del Sur was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men Tuesday afternoon along the national highway here, police said.
Col. Ruel Sermese, Maguindanao police director, identified the victim as Hadji Basit Zangkala, village chairman of neighboring Barangay Labu-Labu 2, Datu Hofer town.
Sermese said Zangkala was sitting inside his car parked beside the highway while waiting for his wife who was buying rice at a roadside store when fired at by the gunmen with their .45-caliber pistols at 5 p.m.
Responding policemen and civilians rushed the victim to the provincial hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Sermese ordered Wednesday the creation of a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to look into the village official’s killing.
He said police are still clueless as to the identities behind the killing of Zangkala.
On Jan. 30, gunmen also killed chairman Abobacar Abdul of Barangay Polloc in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte, and his wife Baisa, in a late afternoon ambush in Barangay Timbangan of the same town. (PNA)
