CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, Philippines – Suspected partisans opened fire with assault rifles at houses of farmers in Carmen, North Cotabato Saturday night, killing three villagers and wounding three others.
Inspector Winston Seniel, Carmen police chief, said the fatalities – Hector Tomasis, 42, Norberto Feliciano, 57, and Lyneth Camus, 49 – were in their homes when the armed men approached their village and, without warning, sprayed their houses with bullets.
Camus’ husband Adolfo, 50, sustained gunshot wounds in the legs and was rushed by responding policemen and civilian volunteers to a dispensary at the Carmen town proper.
Police said two others who live nearby sustained bruises when they jumped out of their windows when they heard the gunshots.
Seniel said they are looking into reports that the attackers wanted to intimidate villagers into supporting a local candidate in the May polls.
Seniel, however, said they are not discounting the possibility that the attackers could be harboring a grudge against one of those killed.
Seniel said the attackers escaped toward the boundary of the Carmen barangays of Katanayahan and Kibayao, known lairs of Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.