Education official shot dead

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Masked men shot dead another education official here yesterday, the second in just one month.

The victim, Shuaib Usop, a teacher and concurrent district education coordinator at the Datu Gumbay Elementary School in Datu Piang, was killed on the spot when gunmen casually approached him at their campus gate and opened fire with .45 caliber handgun.

 Relatives were quick to connect the murder of Usop to last month’s barangay elections in Datu Piang.

It has been a month now since the teachers in several schools in Datu Piang have been receiving threats from sources they believe were candidates that lost during the October barangay elections in their municipality.

An Oblate priest in Datu Piang, Fr. Eduardo Vasquez Jr., said authorities should promptly intervene and protect the teachers in Datu Piang.

“The government should immediately act on this,” Vasquez said.

Usop was killed just a month after masked men shot dead inside his house a public school principal in Datu Piang.

Investigators said the slain principal was killed by followers of a defeated candidate in last October’s barangay elections in Datu Piang.