Ambush, grenade attack rock South Cotabato town

TANTANGAN, South Cotabato — A grenade explosion ripped through a stretch of a highway here Friday night, barely four hours after the fatal ambush of a policeman in the same area.

Patrolman Mangued Mangabpel Salumandeg was riding a motorcycle en route to the Tantangan municipal station when he was attacked by gunmen while motoring through a stretch of the Koronadal-Tacurong Highway in Barangay Dumadalig here.

Salumandeg, assigned at the Police Regional Office-12 in General Santos City, died on the spot from gunshot wounds.

His attackers escaped using motorcycles driven by cohorts.  

The incident preceded the grenade blast Friday night in Barangay Dumadalig, not too far away from the spot where Salumandeg was killed.

The local police said one of two men on a motorcycle together hurled a grenade at a red Mitsubushi pick-up truck parked along a portion of the Koronadal-Tacurong Highway in Barangay Dumadalig and sped away as the explosive went off.

The pickup truck, bearing license plates NET 3147, was damaged.

Investigators from the Tantangan municipal police office are still clueless on the bombing incident.

They are not sure either if it could be related to the fatal ambush of a Salumandeg about four hours prior at the same route.