Maguindanao DENR chief hurt in attack; driver slain

COTABATO CITY — The provincial environment and natural resources officer (PENRO) of Maguindanao was wounded in an ambush in a supposedly well-guarded district here Wednesday afternoon, but his driver was killed and two bystanders, including a grade schooler, were also wounded.

PENRO Kahal Kedtag was on his way home on board his vehicle from the office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the 32-hectare compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao when he was fired at with assault rifles, police said.

The ambush scene was less than 10 meters away from the entrance gate of the regional office of the Government Service Insurance System that was manned by two security guards.

Kedtag sustained bullet wounds in different parts of the body. His driver, Montaser Kedtag, died while he was being treated in a hospital here.

The shooting frenzy also left two bystanders wounded, including a grade school pupil.

Senior Inspector Samsom Obatay, spokesman of the city police, said the ambushers were on board an unlicensed white car.

Obatay said probers were looking into different angles in the attack, which he described as "well-planned."

He said investigators found spent shells from M-16 and Carbine caliber 30 rifles at the ambush scene.

The attack on Obatay was preceded by the brutal murder a day earlier of retired Chief Inspector Bonifacio Sales Sr. by two motorcycle-riding men.

Sales had served the Cotabato City police for more than 30 years and retired from the service in the late 1990s.