Barangay exec, 2-year-old daughter die in Cotabato City ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A barangay treasurer and his two-year-old daughter both died instantly in an ambush on Friday afternoon at a residential area in Barangay Rosary Heights 7 here.

The slain Mhads Mamantal, a Moro Maguindanaon, was barangay treasurer of Barangay Mother Bagua in northwest of this city, home to mixed Muslim and Christian communities.

Col. Querubin Manalang Jr., city police director, told reporters on Saturday morning that Mamantal and his preschool child, Norlyn, were together in their white minivan, on their way to somewhere, when they were attacked by pistol-wielding men at a stretch of the Oblates Drive here.

Mamantal and his daughter were both declared dead on arrival by physicians at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center where emergency responders brought them for treatment.

The attack left their companion, Saddam Mamantal, wounded.

Their attackers immediately escaped using motorcycles, now subject of a joint police-military manhunt.

Manalang said Mamantal had, inside his vehicle, P1.4 million worth of funds he had just withdrawn from a bank shortly prior to the incident, earmarked for their barangay government's expenditures.

The money, placed in a bag, was recovered by responding personnel of the Cotabato City Police Office and immediately turned over to the office of the chairman of Barangay Mother Bagua, according to Manalang.