Cotabato City vice mayor says politics behind ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, who chairs a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front, said the Jan. 10 ambush incident in which he was wounded was politically-motivated.

“After considering all possible angles behind the ambush, politics appear to be on top when a witness volunteered to testify,” Sema told reporters here Wednesday after he arrived home from a week of confinement in Davao City.

Sema refused to name the witness or disclose what the witness said regarding the ambush.

The vice mayor, however, revealed that charges were now being readied against the supposed perpetrators.

Sema, 64, was heading home from the Cotabato City Council when ambushed by two motorcycle-riding men along Gonzalo Javier St., just two blocks from his house.

He suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the neck and body but was declared “out of danger” by physicians at the Notre Dame Hospital here. He was later transferred to Davao City.

One of his alleged assassins was identified as Zermin Abdullah, a permanent employee of the Office of the Southern Cultural Communities. Abdullah was killed in a shootout with Sema security escorts.

Sema said the slay attempt on him was a step further from previous efforts to tarnish his image.

Before his ambush, Sema was linked to past kidnap-for-ransom activities in Maguindanao. Cases filed against him in relation to kidnap-for-ransom had all been dismissed.

“These are all fabricated charges,” Sema said.

“Our being able to survive the ambush was Allah’s desire to prove them wrong. We will fight to tell the truth,” he said.

He also appealed to his followers to let justice takes its course.

“Let us not put the law into our hands but let us allow the authorities, the police and other law enforcement agencies to conduct freely their investigations,” he said.

Mayor Japal Guiani Jr., who felt being alluded to, said, “If it’s us that they’re referring to, then we welcome whatever they plan to file against us.

“We condemned the attack (against the vice mayor) in public and urged the police to fast track its impartial investigation so we will know who did it,” Guiani said.

Guiani admitted he has political differences with Sema but said “it doesn’t mean we have to resort to violence.”