COTABATO CITY— Local officials are certain that Thursday’s ambush incident in Lala, Lanao del Norte that left two individuals dead and two others injured is related to a “rido” involving the victims.
Rido is a generic term for clan war in most southern vernaculars.
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Local executives in Lanao del Norte, one of the provinces in Region 10, told reporters on Friday that they are helping the police put a speedy closure to the incident that resulted in the demise of Cocoy Ariong Acampong and Jehan Macadaag Acampong.
Jehan is daughter of Acampong, not spouse as initially reported earlier by local officials and investigators from Lala Municipal Police Station and radio stations in Central Mindanao.
Two companions of the slain Acampongs, Razul Anguie Ameril and Alim Casar Tawantawan, were seriously wounded in the attack. They are now confined in a hospital.
The victims were in a car on their way to Baroy, Lanao del Norte when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of a highway in Barangay Magpatao in Lala. The culprits managed to escape immediately using getaway motorcycles.
Acampong, who was driving the car, lost control of its wheel due to the bullet wounds he sustained, causing the vehicle to swerve towards one side of the highway and hit a concrete barrier.
Officials of the Lala Municipal Police Station and the Lanao del Norte Provincial Police Office were quoted in radio reports here and in nearby cities as saying that while Acampong has no direct involvement in any rido, he has close relatives who are adversaries of members of another big Maranao clan in the province.