6 shot dead in Cotabato

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines – Six persons, including a woman, were killed after they were riddled with bullets from 12-gauge shotguns in a remote village in Tupi town in South Cotabato, a police report said.

Reports reaching the police provincial command of South Cotabato here Friday identified the victims as Loreto Magun, Rico Yan, Gal Saligan, Decino Saligan, Irene Saligan and Koring Saligan.

Reports said the victims, who were all B’laan natives and residents of Barangay Cebuano of the said town, sustained multiple gunshot wounds on their chests, arms and legs that caused their instant death.

In an interview with The STAR, South Cotabato police director Senior Superintendent Robert Kiunisala said the suspects were identified as Danny Boy Hulom, Tata Cuarte, Jomar Lagkaw and Lucky Boy Lagkaw.

Kiunisala said the supects, who are now the subject of a manhunt operation, were identified based on the accounts of some residents who reportedly saw them while spraying shotgun bullets to the victims Thursday afternoon.

Based on the initial investigation of the Tupi police station, the suspects who were armed with homemade 12-gauge shotguns fired at the six victims while they were working in a farmland there.

The suspects immediately fled after shooting the victims.

Senior Inspector Henry Biñas, Tupi police chief, said the investigators are eyeing “land conflict” as the possible motive of the suspects, citing the fact that the Lagkaw family reportedly owned the lands presently occupied by the families of the victims. 

Biñas said his men are now exerting efforts to locate the whereabouts of the suspects.