Maguindanao del Sur principal dies in Sultan Kudarat ambush

COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed a school principal in an ambush in Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat on Wednesday afternoon, widely perceived to be related to the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. 

Citing a report from the Lambayong Municipal Police Station, Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said the fatality, Hermielex Kapusan, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

Kapusan was principal in the Tukanakuden Elementary School in Barangay Tukanakuden in Sultan sa Barongis town in Maguindanao del Sur, not too distant from his hometown, Lambayong.

Macaraeg said that the victim was riding his motorcycle, en route to Purok Rang-in Barangay Poblacion in Lambayong where he resides, when gunmen flagged him down at a secluded stretch of the highway in Purok Pag-asa in Tinumigues in the same town and opened fire.

The killers of Kapusan, all at large, are now subject of a joint manhunt by personnel of the Lambayong MPS and intelligence agents from the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office and from units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Relatives of Kapusan told reporters that they believe the incident could be related to the October 30 BSKE where he and his subordinate-teachers served as polling personnel in their school where there was immense tension among rival candidates.