Couple dead, LGU exec wounded in central Mindanao gun attacks

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines — A Moro couple was killed while an assistant secretary to the mayor was badly wounded in separate gun attacks Friday in the neighboring Maguindanao del Sur and South Cotabato provinces. 

Gunmen barged into the house of spouses Sukarno and Sittie Sedik in Barangay Balud in Sultan sa Barongis town in Maguindanao del Sur before dawn Friday and shot them with pistols, killing them both instantly.

Brig. Gen. John Guyguyon, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said Saturday personnel of the Sultan sa Barongis Municipal Police Station and Army intelligence agents are cooperating in identifying the culprits for prosecution.

About six hours later, gunmen on motorcycles wounded in an ambush Rhyolite Agregado Balili, assistant secretary to the mayor of Polomolok town in South Cotabato.

Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office 12, said Balili was driving his car en route to the Polomolok municipal hall compound when men on motorcycles trailing behind shot him with pistols as they got close.

Balili had also served as municipal councilor of Polomolok prior to his appointment as assistant secretary to the incumbent mayor of the municipality.

Three members of the Civil Security Unit of the Polomolok local government unit were killed one after another last January in seemingly related gun attacks that remained unsolved.

Macaraeg said he has ordered the South Cotabato Provincial Police Office to put closure on the attempt to kill Balili and on the murder early on of the three Polomolok CSU personnel.