CAFGU head hunted down for ambush-slay

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Police are hunting down the leader of a village militia unit tagged as the mastermind of the ambush-killing of six people in Alamada, North Cotabato last Thursday night.

Two survivors, Susan Liboon and Melissa Butalid, have positively identified Efren Pagu—talan, commander of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Barangay Bao, Alamada town, as one of the ambushers.

Liboon, Butalid and their slain neighbors — Marcelo Erisido and his wife, Juliana, spouses Freddie and Herlanie Kimot and their six-year-old son, Jesryl, and Carlos Alegamar — were on their way home from nearby Midsayap town where they sold corn and other farm products when they were ambushed.

Lt. Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said intelligence agents have been sent to Alamada to help the police document the case so Pagutalan and his cohorts could be prosecuted.

Local officials said Pagutalan’s group divested the victims of their money and other valuables before fleeing. — John Unson