Doctor hurt in ambush in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  ---- Motorycle-riding gunmen wounded in an ambush Tuesday night a popular neurologist here.

The victim, physician Remus Magabilen, was driving his red Ford Explorer bearing license plates LFR 436 on his way home from the Polymedic Medical Center along the supposedly busy Gov. Gutierrez Avenue here when the gunmen trailing behind opened fire with caliber .45 handguns as they got close.

Magabilen, who was  wounded in his left arm,  drive fast toward the nearby Cotabato Regional Medical Center as his attackers fled after sensing that the shots they fired triggered a commotion and attracted the attention of barangay watchmen near the area.

The wounded Magabilen rammed  his car to the gates of the hospital, damaging his vehicle.

Responding security guards managed to pull him out and rush him to the hospital’s emergency room.

Magabilen’s patriarch, Romeo, also a physician, was former city health officer here.

Investigators have yet to determine the identities of Magabilen’s ambushers and their motive for the attack.