Tribal chieftain kills son, hurts wife

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines  – A tribal chieftain quarrelling with his in-laws accidentally shot his son dead and wounded his wife in Tantangan town Saturday night, police reported yesterday.

Stanley Cabel of the Bilaan tribe turned himself in to the local police after the incident.

Investigators said Cabel and his family were asleep when the three brothers of his wife, Jocelyn, barged into their house in Barangay Libas.

The intruders, identified as Oliver Aton and his brothers Jonathan and Enin, were reportedly drunk when they provoked Cabel. The three men grappled for a gun that Cabel reportedly took from a cabinet.

Cabel accidentally pulled the trigger twice as his in-laws were trying to subdue him.

The bullets hit Jocelyn and their one-year-old son, who died at the scene.

Barangay officials rushed Jocelyn to the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital in the nearby Koronadal City for treatment. The Atons fled after the incident.