Maguindanao vice mayor gunned down inside home

MAGUINDANAO — Gunmen shot dead on Sunday the newly installed vice mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, whose mayor, Samsudin Dimaukon, was killed by anti-narcotics agents last month.

 

Anwar Sindatok was in his residence drinking coffee with visitors who, in the middle of a conversation, pulled out handguns from their waists and repeatedly shot him at close range, killing him on the spot.

 

Sindatok has just assumed as vice mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan after its vice mayor, Anida Abas Dimaukom, took over the town’s mayoral post, left vacant by the death of her husband, Dimaukom, in an anti-narcotics operation in Makilala, North Cotabato on October 28.

 

Mayor Dimaukom and his wife were running mates when they aspired for the mayoral and vice mayoral posts in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, respectively, during the May 9, 2016 elections.

 

Nine of Dimaukom’s companions were also killed in the alleged encounter between them and the police team that flagged down their convoy to search for drugs and firearms in their vehicles while at Barangay Old Bulatukan in Makilala, North Cotabato.

 

Police investigators are still clueless on the identities of the gunmen who killed Sindatok and their real motive for the attack.

 

Text messages started circulating before noontime Sunday purporting that some relatives of the fatalities in the October 28 incident in Makilala are suspecting that Sindatok helped the police locate Mayor Dimaukom’s convoy which policemen tried to stop for inspection in an operation that went haywire and resulted in a firefight.

 

He took over the vice mayoral post from Mayor Dimaukom's wife based on his having garnered most number of votes from among all aspirants for seats in the municipal council during the May 9 elections.

 

The occupant of the municipal council’s second seat shall take over the vice mayoral post which is now vacant as a result of Sindatok’s death.