Ampatuan’s legal adviser, driver killed in ambush

COTABATO CITY — Motorcycle-riding men killed in an ambush yesterday a top legal adviser of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and his driver on a busy street here yesterday.

Accountant-lawyer Arnel Datukun, manager of the ARMM’s Social Fund Project (ASFP), and his driver, Ismael Mohammad, both died from multiple gunshot wounds from what witnesses described as customized M-16 assault rifles.

Datukun, who advised Ampatuan on foreign and socio-economic concerns, played a key role in the efficient implementation of more than a hundred community infrastructure projects, jointly bankrolled by the World Bank, the Japan Bank of International Cooperation and Malacañang, in many impoverished communities in the autonomous region.

Before joining the Ampatuan administration, Datukun was the dean of the College of Law of the Notre Dame University here, owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation and the biggest Catholic university in Central Mindanao.

He served as Cotabato City councilor from 1998 to 2001, during which he used his office as a springboard for his crusade against human rights abuses.

The city police, which has long been subject of criticisms for its failure to stop daily killings here, was still clueless on yesterday’s ambush-killing.

Last June, Maguindanao’s provincial environment officer, Kahal Kedtag, was wounded in an ambush not far away from the 32-hectare ARMM compound here. His driver was killed in the attack.

Kedtag went on leave after the attack, apparently still fearing for his safety.

Motorcycle-riding men hurled a grenade at the gate of the ARMM compound less than two months after the attempt on Kedtag’s life, killing a watchman and wounding two others.

Last month, still unidentified men attempted to kill, using improvised explosives, ARMM Solicitor-General Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, but failed.

Ampatuan condemned the killing of Datukun and his driver and asked the police commands of the ARMM and Region 12 to jointly investigate it.

While Cotabato City is located within Maguindanao, a component province of the ARMM, the local police is administratively under the Region 12 police command.