Maguindanao education official shot dead while having a nap

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—An education official in Maguindanao was shot and killed while taking a nap outside her boarding house in Kabacan, North Cotabato, police said.

Taya Sabal Las Marias, 52, had dozed off in a rocking chair in front of her boarding house on University of Southern Mindanao Avenue in Kabacan when a man arrived at 1:30 p.m. Monday on a motorcycle driven by another man and, without any provocation, repeatedly shot the woman with a .45-caliber pistol.

The victim, who rented  a room in Kabacan as her home was far from the town proper, worked with the Department of Education office in nearby Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.

Las Marias sustained five gunshot wounds in the head and other part of the body and was declared dead on arrival at the Kabacan Doctor’s Hospital.

Police investigators said they had no idea what the motive for the attack was.

The DepEd regional office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao condemned the shooting of Las Marias, and called for a speedy and impartial probe.