Government-run radio said Sato, an ally of President Arroyo, was airlifted to Manila for treatment. Her wounds are reportedly not life-threatening.
"She’s okay right now, as well as her bodyguards," local Army commander Col. Fernando Mesa said.
Sato was grazed in the head by automatic rifle fire. Her security escorts and a provincial board member were also wounded, military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero told reporters in Manila.
Local police said former Mindoro occidental congressman Ricardo Quintos sought the help of Malacañang to have Sato brought to Manila aboard a helicopter yesterday afternoon.
Also wounded were Provincial Board Member Randy Ignacio, who was also grazed in the head by bullets, and Sato’s bodyguards SPO1 Vic Sagun, PO1 Larry Hilario and PO1 Noel Layona, all of the Mindoro Occidental police.
Ignacio, Sagun, Hilario and Layona were brought to the Mindoro Provincial Hospital in Sta. Cruz town for treatment of superficial wounds.
Sato and Ignacio were riding a Ford F-150 pickup truck en route to Mamburao town when they were waylaid by at least 16 men armed with M-16 and M-14 assault rifles at 1 p.m. as they approached a National Irrigation Administration bridge in Barangay Alacaak in Sta. Cruz.
It was unclear whether Sato’s security detail, who were on board a Mitsubishi Strada pickup truck tailing Sato’s vehicle, were able to return fire as their assailants fled.
Mesa said the area where Sato and her party were attacked is considered a rebel-infested area.
Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan (MIRAROPA) police director Chief Superintendent Alex Lapinid said a deeper probe will be conducted to identify Sato’s assailants and determine the motive behind the ambush.
As of press time, the military did not cite any motive for the attack, but Mindoro island is known to be a hotbed of the NPA, who have ambushed police and military patrols in the area in the past.
A former governor of Mindoro Occidental, Sato just finished her three-year term in Congress and is again running for governor.
Sato is running against incumbent Gov. Jose Villarosa of the administration Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD).
Villarosa was charged with the December 1997 murders of Quintos’ sons, Michael and Paul, and is out on bail.
Lapinid said investigators will look into reports that the NPA Lucio de Guzman Command is responsible for the ambush, though the police are also looking into the possibility that the attack on Sato was politically motivated.
Last month in Mindoro, left-wing Naujan town vice mayor Jovy Magsino and her aide were shot dead in an ambush.
A mayor and a town councilman have also been killed in other parts of the Philippines in recent weeks in what is seen as heightened political violence ahead of the May 10 national and local elections.
Elections in the Philippines are often marred by accusations of cheating and intimidation of candidates and their supporters.
About 40 million Filipino voters are to elect the president, members of the legislature and thousands of local executives in the coming polls.
Military figures show that at least 98 people — including 24 government officials — were killed in election-related violence in the run-up to the 2001 congressional polls. — Rene Alviar, Jaime Laude, Christina Mendez, AFP