Maguindanao vice mayor’s killers identified

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Police have identified the assailants of the vice mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town.

Superintendent Nixon Muksan, Maguindanao police director, said yesterday they are preparing murder charges against the perpetrators, whom he did not name. 

Anwar Sindatok was having coffee with some guests at his home on Sunday when he was shot.

Muksan said they sought the support of local religious leaders to ensure a tight case against the killers.

Von Al-Haq, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, told reporters this week that the suspects belong to the MILF’s 118th base command led by Imam Wahid Tundok, a foreign-trained cleric.

Sindatok was reportedly killed on suspicion that he led the police to mayor Samsudin Dimaukom who was killed along with nine of his companions in an anti-narcotics operation in Barangay Old Bulatukan in Makilala, North Cotabato on Oct. 28.

Three of Dimaukom’s slain companions were said to be relatives of senior commanders of the MILF group. 

Al-Haq said the MILF leadership deployed their men in Datu Saudi Ampatuan to help defuse the tension between Sindatok’s relatives and the families of his killers.