Cops sent to Maguindanao village to avert clan war

MAGUINDANAO - The police on Wednesday dispatched a team to pacify relatives of a barangay chairman and four others killed in an ambush Tuesday in Datu Odin Sinsuat town to avert more vendetta killings in the area.

The fatalities, Michael Sinsuat Dalidig, chairman of Barangay Dimapatoy, barangay councilor Jonathan Benito, his spouse and their two children, died from multiple gunshot wounds sustained in the attack. 

Senior Inspector Datutulon Pinguiaman, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police, said the victims were on their way home on board a multicab vehicle from a relative’s house in the center of Barangay Dimapatoy when the ambushers emerged from one side and fired at them.

“Our investigators are still trying to determine the identities of the suspects and their motive for the ambush. Let’s wait for the outcome of the investigation,” Pinguiaman said.

Relatives said an old grudge, possibly related to either politics or a land dispute, between the gunmen and one of the victims could be the reason for the ambush.

Pinguiaman said they have sent emissaries to the victims' respective families to convince them to refrain from retaliating and to give the local police enough time to wind up with its investigation on the incident.