4 dead in North Cotabato shooting

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Gunmen killed a Moro peasant and three grade school children in an attack Monday night in Barangay Ugalingan in North Cotabato’s Carmen town.

The fatalities, Ibrahim Agal, 50, and relatives, Sarah, 9, Pama, 10, and Mustapha, 12, all surnamed Agal too, were dining together in their house in when the suspects, armed with M16 assault rifles and caliber .45 handguns, barged in and opened fire, killing them on the spot.

Three other members of the Agal family, Mokamad, 18, Jerry, 42, and nine-year-old Nasrudin, were seriously wounded in the shooting frenzy.

The suspects hurriedly left Barangay Ugalingan after sensing that responding barangay officials and policemen were closing in.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza condemned the atrocity and ordered the director of the provincial police, Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum, to identify the culprits and prosecute them immediately.

Members of Carmen municipal police are still validating persistent feedback by barangay folks purporting that an old rido (family feud) could have triggered the carnage.