Cop killed in General Santos gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Attackers shot dead a policeman in a residential area in Barangay Baluan in General Santos City before dawn Sunday.

In separate reports on Sunday morning, the General Santos City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-12 stated that Patrolman Jobert Horcedera Moremonte died on the spot from bullet wounds in different parts of his body.

Moremonte, who belonged to one of the units of PRO-12, was riding his Yamaha NMAX motorcycle, en route to somewhere, when he was reportedly attacked by pistol-wielding men in an unlit stretch of a street in Purok Mapagmahal in Agan Greenville in Barangay Baluan.

Villagers, awakened by the gunshots that reverberated through the scene, had told responding police investigators and barangay tanods that the killers of Moremonte immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles.

Relatives and friends of Moremonte have a theory that he knew who his killers were, having had a grudge with personnel of another law-enforcement agency. They refused to elaborate on the issue.