Google map of Midsayap town, North Cotabato.
COTABATO CITY – A village councilman and a watchman were killed when they were attacked in what police believed was triggered by a long-standing clan war in the town of Midsayap in North Cotabato at 1 a.m. Thursday.
Lt. Col. John Miridel Calinga, Midsayap town police chief, identified the fatalities as Tho Puyo Singh, 73, village council member of Barangay Kudarangan, and Bayao Mohammad Uka, 58, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team and a resident of the same place.
“The houses of the victims in the village were sprayed with bullets,” he said.
Barangay Kudarangan is among the 63 villages in North Cotabato that opted to join the expanded Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The villages are now grouped and named BARMM Special Geographic Area (SGA).
Calinga said the families of Singh, a member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and that of a certain Sukarno Madidis, also an MNLF member, have been locked in a long-standing “rido” (family feud).
Meanwhile, in Banisilan town, unidentified gunmen ambushed and killed a school teacher and her husband as they were heading for school at about 7 a.m. Thursday.
Maj. Elexon Bona, Banisilan municipal police station chief, identified the fatalities as Angelie Cañete Romanguera, 43, teacher of Pantar Elementary School, and her husband, Juanito Romanguera, 56, a tricycle driver.
“The suspects immediately fled after the incident,” Bona said in a radio interview. “Manhunt is still ongoing.”
Romelito Flores, the North Cotabato schools division superintendent, condemned the attack against the school teacher.
“We hope and pray that the proper authorities will do a thorough investigation and that justice be given to the victim and her family,” he said. (PNA)
