2 DPWH engineers killed in Cotabato ambush

COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed two engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways in a daring ambush on a busy stretch of highway in Barangay Lanao, Kidapawan City, Cotabato, on Friday afternoon, March 14.

Lt. Col. Dominador Palgan Jr., Kidapawan City police chief, told reporters at the scene of the bloody incident that engineers Mohammad Jalaluddin Mandangan and Benhur Piang died instantly from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the ambush.

The two engineers were ranking employees at the 2nd District Engineering Office of the DPWH-12 in Cotabato province.. 

Mandangan and Piang were in a white Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, on their way to their office from a noontime Friday worship rite in a mosque in Kidapawan City, when they were attacked by gunmen riding motorcycles, killing the two of them instantly. 

The pick-up truck, driven by Mandangan, crashed into an electric post after he was shot in the head and slumped over the wheel.

Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the Cotabato Provincial Peace and Order Council, has urged Lt. Col. Dominador Palgan and Cotabato's police director, Col. Gilberto Tuzon, to collaborate in identifying the gunmen responsible for the attack.

Mendoza, presiding chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, which covers four provinces and four cities in Central Mindanao, condemned the incident and urged the officemates of the slain engineers to assist the police in bringing closure to the case.