No clues yet on ambush of teacher in Maguindanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Investigators are still clueless on the near fatal ambush Thursday of a public school teacher in Datu Anggal Midtimbang town in Maguindanao del Sur.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters Saturday probers have enlisted the help of local officials in identifying the ambushers of Israel Paguital.

Paguital was seriously wounded in the attack.

Paguital was driving his car when gunmen, positioned at one side of the highway in Barangay Midtimbang in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, opened fire.

The culprits managed to escape before responding policemen and soldiers from a nearby Army detachment could reach the scene.

A public school teacher, Joel Reformado, was killed in an ambush in Pikit town in Cotabato last May 28.

He and a co-teacher, Elton John Lapined, were together in a motorcycle when they were attacked by gunmen while motoring through a stretch of the highway in Barangay Manaulanan in Pikit.

Reformado, who was a faculty member in Manaulanan Elementary School, died on the spot from bullet wounds in the head.

Lapined sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of his body and is still recuperating in a hospital.