COTABATO CITY (UPDATED 3:15 p.m.) — Two overt supporters of a candidate for barangay chairman were killed while four others were wounded in an ambush that occurred while they were on their way to a roadside polling site in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Monday morning.
Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, confirmed the incident and identified one of the two fatalities as Juhaimein Ube, an ethnic Maguindanaon.
The duo had reportedly campaigned for an aspirant for chairman of Barangay Bugawas, an agricultural enclave traversed by the Cotabato-Isulan Highway.
The four companions of Ube who sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies, Mohalidin Solaiman, Jerik Alon, Nasrudin Salik and Harong Tating, were immediately rushed to a hospital by emergency responders for treatment.
In an initial report to Nobleza, Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police, said Ubeh and his companions were on their way to the Bugawas Elementary School in Barangay Bugawas when they were attacked by gunmen, four of them initially identified by witnesses by their aliases Mok, Keds, Michael and Teng.
Madin said the suspects managed to escape even before responding barangay tanods and policemen could reach the scene.
(Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story indicated that there were five individuals hurt from the incident. This has been updated to indicate that there were only four wounded.)