Company manager dead, wife wounded in Maguindanao del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed a company manager and wounded his wife in another gun attack in Buluan, Maguindanao del Sur on Friday, March 21.

Officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Saturday, March 22, that the 70-year-old Arthur Patrimonio Elecanal died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

Elecanal was manager of the Agumil Agri-Machinery Company in Buluan, where the provincial capitol of Maguindanao del Sur is located.

The incident left Elecanal’s 66-year-old spouse injured. She is now confined in a hospital.

More than 10 individuals had been killed in a series of gun attacks in Buluan, the capital of Maguindanao del Sur, since the Commission on Elections enforced nationwide last January 12 a total gun ban to ensure safe and peaceful elections in May 2025.

In a report to Macapaz, the Buluan Municipal Police Station stated that Elecanal and his wife were together in a pick-up that he was driving when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of a highway straddling through the town center of Buluan.

The couple’s vehicle veered towards the side of the highway and plunged into a swamp after he lost control of the wheel due to his gunshot wounds in the head and upper torso.

Their attackers managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the scene.