PCG member hurt in Basilan gun attack dies

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A 26-year-old Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) member wounded in a gun attack in Lamitan City on Thursday died in a hospital in Zamboanga City yesterday.

In separate reports, the Lamitan city police station and the Basilan provincial police office said Nurhan Ijal Birong, an ethnic Yakan from Akbar town in Basilan and assigned at a PCG unit in Ormoc City, succumbed to gunshot wounds in the armpit and left forearm.

Lt. Col. Arlan Delumpines, Lamitan city police chief, said Birong and his fiancée, Mudzrika Gayot Aman, were walking together in Barangay Maligaya when a man shot him thrice with a pistol.

Investigators said the attacker, whose name is withheld, is also from Lamitan and held an old grudge with Birong.