Barangay chairman, CAFGU killed in attacks in NCotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - A barangay chairman and a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit were killed in separate attacks in the province Wednesday by gunmen riding a motorcycle.

Kudim Kusim, 53, chairman of Barangay Balatong Kayuh in Datu Montawal town in nearby Maguindanao province, was waiting for a ride in front of a department store in Kabacan town when one of two men riding a motorcycle  opened fire with a .45 caliber handgun.

Senior Inspector Jardine Maribojo, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said the suspects escaped after Kusim fell after  sustaining bullet wounds in different parts of his body. 

Maribojo said investigators have been dispatched to Montawal, about 10 kilometers south of Kabacan, to question Kusim’s relatives on the possible motives for the killing.

The Kabacan incident was preceded by the fatal shooting by suspected hitmen of the New People’s Army of a CAFGU member, Aquilino Nicor, at the town proper of Arakan, a hinterland North Cotabato town.

Nicor and his wife, a public school teacher,  were  leaving their house  on board a motorcycle when one of two men positioned along the road approached and shot him in the head.

The gunmen took Nicor’s bag containing his handgun and fled toward Barangay Badiangon in the east of Arakan riding a motorcycle parked not far from the victim’s house.

Citing initial feedback by probers, Senior Inspector Rolly Oranza of the Arakan police, said the gunmen could be members of the New People’s Army.

Nicor was a known government “asset,” or informer, who helped the police and military monitor the activities of NPA forces operating in Arakan and nearby towns. - John Unson