Maguindanao mayor shot, wounded in Pasay

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered an in-depth probe into the shooting and wounding of Datu Montawal town Mayor Ohto Montawal in Pasay City on Wednesday.

Col. Jean Fajardo, PNP spokesperson, yesterday said investigators are scouring for clues – including from closed-circuit television or CCTV – to the identities of the gunmen who shot Montawal along Roxas Boulevard in Barangay 4.

The Pasay City police, she added, are coordinating with their counterparts in Datu Montawal town in Maguindanao province to determine if the local executive has received threats in the past. Investigators are not discounting the possibility that the two attackers were also from Maguindanao.

Initial investigation showed that Montawal and his companions were headed to Gil Puyat Avenue when their Toyota Hi-Ace van was shot at. He was coming from the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) general assembly at the Manila Hotel when the shooting happened.

Montawal is recuperating in an undisclosed hospital from gunshot wounds in his hip and left arm.

As this developed, PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. ordered police commanders to conduct a threat assessment on elected and appointed government officials in their respective jurisdictions.

Azurin presided over the turnover of command ceremony of the National Capital Region Police Office at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, handing over leadership of the NCRPO from Maj. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, who was promoted to PNP deputy chief for operations, to Maj. Gen. Edgar Allan Okubo.

He noted that Montawal is the third local official to be ambushed in a week after Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong and Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda of Aparri, Cagayan. Adiong and Montawal are recuperating from their injuries while Alameda and five of his companions were killed in an ambush in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.