3 dead in another Cotabato City ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Three Moro men were killed in a daring gun attack here Thursday, less than a week after gunmen stormed a local pawnshop and wounded three as they robbed the establishment of cash and jewelry.

Cith police director Superintendent Rolen Balquin identified the fatalities as Johaider Marunting, 36; Guinaid Ali Adta, 58; and Kadir Ali Adta, 48, who were on their way to a secluded village in the city’s outskirts, when they were attacked at the boundary of the adjoining villages of Tamontaka I and Tamontaka II.

The victims were pronounced dead on arrival by physicians at a local hospital were they were rushed by responding barangay officials and policemen for medical attention.

Balquin said investigators are certain an old grudge was the reason behind the fatal ambush of the victims.

Investigators said the attackers also divested the victims of their mobile phones, wallets, and wristwatches, before they hurriedly left the scene riding motorcycles.

The incident was preceded by last week’s bloody daytime robbery pulled off by gunmen, some of them brandishing assault rifles, of the Far East Pawnshop at the city proper.

The pawnshop is only about two blocks away from the city’s main police precinct.

The owner of the pawnshop and his two workers were wounded in the heist.

A robber, who was wounded in an ensuing shootout with security guards, was finished off with several fatal shots by his own cohorts as they fled.

Balquin said the gunmen made sure that responding policemen would not capture their wounded accomplice alive.

The establishment is also not far from a company command post of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 1, which is helping the police guard the city’s 37 barangays, where guns-for-hire have been operating with impunity for years now, virtually uncontrolled.