South Upi Vice Mayor's convoy attacked, driver hurt

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Gunmen fired assault rifles at the vehicle of South Upi Vice-Mayor Remegio Sioson on Sunday night, wounding his driver and sparking a brief encounter with his security escorts.

Sioson and his companions were on their way home from Cotabato City when they were attacked by gunmen positioned at one side of a zigzag stretch of the Awang-Lebak highway in a secluded area at Barangay Kibukay in North Upi town, about 30 kilometers northeast of the town proper of South Upi.

The neophyte vice-mayor was unhurt, but his driver, 45-year old Mario Erese, who was wounded in the initial volley of fire, is now undergoing medication at a hospital.

Sioson said he is convinced that the ambush was a case of “mistaken identity,” since he has no known adversary. He did not elaborate.

Combatants of the 2nd Marine Company, a component unit of the Marine Battalion Landing 8, who were escorting Sioson managed to return fire, forcing the attackers to flee.

Responding Marines, led by 1Lt. Clifford Pacatang, recovered spent cartridges of assault rifles from the roadside where the gunmen positioned themselves.

Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, regional police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has ordered the Maguindanao provincial police office to determine the identities of the gunmen and file criminal charges against them.