Another Maguindanao del Sur school official perish in ambush

KORONADAL CITY — Gunmen along a highway shot dead a school principal in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao del Sur on Monday afternoon, the second education official in the same town killed in an ambush in just two months.

Mamadatu Dalandas, principal of Datu Tecson Elementary School in Sultan sa Barongis, was riding his motorcycle when he was attacked by armed men positioned at one side of the highway in Barangay Manungkaling in Mamasapano, Maguindanao del Sur while on his way to the center of the municipality.

In a report to Bangsamoro regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza on Tuesday, Lt. Lou Christian Villones, chief of the Mamasapano municipal police, said that Dalandas died on the spot from gunshot wounds.

His killers managed to escape before responding barangay tanods in Manungkaling had reached the scene.

The incident was preceded by the fatal Nov. 15, 2023 ambush in a secluded area in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat of Hermielex Kapusan, principal of the Tukanakuden Elementary School in Barangay Tukanakuden in Sultan sa Barongis.

Kapusan was also riding a motorcycle, en route to the town proper of Lambayong where he resides when gunmen shot him with pistols while motoring through a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Tinumigues in the municipality.

Nobleza said that he has directed personnel of the Sultan sa Barongis Municipal Police Station and intelligence agents in the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office to investigate the killings extensively and immediately file criminal cases against the culprits once identified.