Assistant municipal election officer dies in Sultan Kudarat attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed the assistant municipal election officer of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat in an ambush in a nearby town in the province on Saturday afternoon, November 23.

In separate reports on Sunday, November 24, the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office-12 stated that the victim, John Nico Allan Pandoy, died on the spot from gunshot wounds he sustained in the attack.

Pandoy was riding his motorcycle, on his way to somewhere, when gunmen shot him with pistols while motoring through a stretch of a highway in Purok Sampaguita in Barangay Poblacion in President Quirino in Sultan Kudarat, killing him instantly.

His attackers had immediately escaped using a getaway vehicle, according to barangay officials and investigators in the President Quirino Municipal Police Station.

Local executives in Sultan Kudarat and employees of the Commission on Elections in the province had condemned the brutal murder of Pandoy and urged the police to immediately identify his killers for them to be prosecuted in court.

Army Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, acting commander of the Western Mindanao Command, told reporters on Sunday that he has directed the 6th Infantry Division, which has units in Sultan Kudarat, to mobilize intelligence agents to help police investigators identify the killers of Pandoy.