3 hurt as heavily armed men attack ARMM solgen’s house

COTABATO CITY — Three villagers were seriously wounded when still unidentified gunmen attacked with shoulder-fired rockets and machineguns the house of the solicitor general of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) here shortly before midnight Tuesday.

The city’s police identified the victims as Sammy Lawag, Naidsla Rimbo and Carol Yano, all residents of the Kutang Bato Subdivision.

Lawag is a security escort of lawyer Cynthia Sayadi, the ARMM’s solicitor general and a practicing human rights lawyer.

Chief Inspector Saiben Akmad, chief of a local police precint, said a heavily-tinted Nissan Terrano just pulled over in front of Sayadi’s residence and opened fire with automatic weapons, hitting Lawag in different parts of his body.

The gunmen fled after Sayadi’s other security men, led by her husband, returned fire.

Some 15 minutes later, just as policemen and soldiers were clearing the surroundings of the house, the gunmen returned and raked Sayadi’s house again with M-60 machineguns, shoulder-fired M79 grenades and B-40 rockets, triggering a brief gunbattle.

Sayadi’s husband, Omar, said they are convinced that the gunmen were relatives of his wife, whose clan is at odds with them. He did not elaborate.

Sayadi, a popular lawyer and known for her extensive exposure in handling electoral cases involving influential politicians in Central Mindanao, is a daughter of a retired commissioner of the Commission on Elections, Guiapal Guiani, a judge in Region 12 for 30 years.

Last week, an M-79 grenade, fired from a distance, exploded inside the yard of the Savadis, partly destroying, a parked vehicle. No one however, was reported killed or injured.

The two other wounded victims, Yano and Rimbo, were residing in houses near Sayadi’s abode which the gunmen also strafed as they fled from the scene on board getaway vehicles.

Preceding the incident was the grenade attack on a dry goods store at the town proper of Pikit, North Cotabato, which left three people seriously wounded.

Major Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said a lone suspect lobbed a fragmentation grenade infront of the Filipinas 2000 Store in downtown Pikit and fled.

Wounded in the blast were Edgar Tolin, Emmanuel Otor and Reming Lamosao, now recuperating a local hospital.

Ando said the blast was so strong that it wrecked a mini-van parked in front of the store.