CEBU, Philippines — The Muslim community is saddened following the shooting of one of its members in Lapu-Lapu City last week, said Datu Abubacar Gunang, information officer of National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) in the Visayas.
During the observance of Eid’l Fitr yesterday, he appealed to authorities to give justice to the death of 45-year-old Maodin Manali Lucman, a trader who was shot dead by men on board a motorcycle last June 7 in Barangay Poblacion.
Lucman heads the Lapu-Lapu City Muslim Ambulant Vendors Association.
Gunang, also the president of the Association of Cebu Muslim Professionals and Entrepreneurs, Inc. (ACMEP), said local officials and the police should track down the perpetrators and look into the commission of the crime.
He said it baffled them that the shooting was not solved, considering that there were several policemen in Lapu-Lapu City that day since President Rodrigo Duterte was scheduled to visit Cebu at that time.
Lucman was reportedly shot a few hours before the arrival of Duterte, who graced the inauguration of Terminal 2 of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Gunang said that despite the heightened security, it did not stop the gunmen from pursuing the Muslim leader.
He said Muslims now fear that they may be next casualty.
He admitted this incident is one of the present problems confronting the local Muslim community, which were supposed to celebrate yesterday the Eid’l Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan.
That is why, he said, Muslims are calling on the authorities to investigate the incident and look deeper into the killing, so as to resolve the crime and prevent these bloody events from proliferating.
Gunang said the assailants are still at large and the motive of the killing is yet to be determined.
According to the accounts of their Muslim brothers there, Lucman was reportedly only walking outdoors when the gunmen who were riding a motorcycle chased and shot him.
He said there were several slugs of bullets seen from the crime scene. Lucman was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to gunshot wounds. — GAN (FREEMAN)