Woman survives massacre in Sultan Kudarat long enough to tell police
TACURONG CITY, Sultan Kudarat – A 34-year-old woman survived a massacre in Sultan Kudarat province Monday long enough to tell police how unidentified men on motorcycles shot and killed two tricycle drivers and two of her companions, police said. The woman succumbed hours later to bullet wounds in the nape and body.
Supt. Junny Buenacosa, Tacurong City police chief, said the bloodied Regine Dalogdog was found crawling on the ground on the outskirts of this city bordering on the town of Lambayong around 4 a.m. on Monday.
Buenacosa said Dalogdog told police investigators she and her companions were on their way to Lambayong from Tacurong when their tricycles they were riding were flagged down by six motorcycle-riding men.
At gunpoint they were ordered to alight, told to drop facedown and without any further word from the gunmen, they were shot in the head and body. The gunmen then hurriedly left, he said.
Dalogdog, the police chief said, played dead and, after noticing the men had left, crawled for about 50 feet away from where the shooting took place.
The bullet-riddled bodies of tricycle drivers Manuel Rafael, 32, and Felix Rodrigo, both of Tacurong City, and those of Rhea Ramirez, 28, of Dadiangas West, General Santos City, and Joan Mamon, 26, of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, were later recovered.
Dalogdog, 34, of Barangay Apopong, General Santos City, was wounded in the nape and body, Buenacosa said. She died Monday night.
Buenacosa said the police were looking at the possibility illegal drugs was a factor in the killings.
The killings were the latest in the series of summary executions attributed to motorcycle-riding men in Central Mindanao.
On Friday last week, three persons were also killed while another one was wounded in separate shooting incidents in Kabacan and Pikit towns, in North Cotabato.
In the Pikit incident, those killed were identified as Ali Sangkupan and Angkatan Abdilah – all of the same town. The injured was Norhaimin Ampatuan, according to investigator SPO3 Sandique Solaiman.
The victim in the Kabacan, North Cotabato, shooting was identified as Prima Manuel, 56, a village health worker assigned to Barangay Kilagasan.
Supt. Jordaine Maribojo, Kabacan police chief, said Manuel was inside the health center when two men on a motorcycle arrived and shot her without any word.
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