Lanao del Sur town police chief killed in ambush

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - The police and military are still clueless on the fatal ambush late Monday of the municipal police chief of Poona Bayabao town in Lanao del Sur.

Sources from the Army’s 103rd Brigade in Marawi City, the provincial capital of Lanao del Sur, said Tuesday Inspector Darangina Ditucalan died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds he sustained in the attack.

Ditucalan was an ethnic Maranaw, who has relatives who are reportedly locked in deep-seated feuds with big families in Lanao del Sur.

Local officials said Ditucalan and his companions were on board their patrol car when they were attacked while maneuvering through a secluded stretch of a main thoroughfare in Poona Bayabao town.

In a statement, the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said probers are still trying to establish the identities of the gunmen behind the attack.

The PRO-ARMM said the Lanao del Sur provincial police office is looking into the possibility that the incident could be related to an old grudge, or the involvement of any of Ditucalan’s relatives in a rido, which means clan war in the Maranaw dialect.