BARMM indigenous exec gunned down in Cotabato City

File photo of Jocelyn Palao from MIPA BARMM

COTABATO CITY — A mid-level woman executive of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was gunned down Tuesday by still-unidentified attackers in Barangay Rosary Heights XI in this city.

Major Amil Andungan Jr., Cotabato City Police Station 2 chief, identified the victim as Jocelyn Samar Palao, 52, head of the ancestral domain division of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs (MIPA).

Andungan said Palao, a Teduray from South Upi town, Maguindanao del Sur, was sitting at the back of a Suzuki mini-van with two companions and were heading for home, when a man on a motorbike shot her about 5:30 p.m. at Teodoro V. Juliano Avenue.

Her companions, Jimmy Benito and Nurudin Zacaria, were unharmed.

“We continue our investigation; we are still facing a black wall at this time,” Andungan said in a radio interview.

BARMM parliament member Froilyn Tenorio Mendoza strongly condemned the attack.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this vicious attack on IP women. Many women’s lives were lost and are deprived [because] of these attacks on women and are unacceptable under any circumstances,” she said in a statement.

Repeated attacks on women

Mendoza said her office is deeply concerned about the repeated attacks on women.

“When IP women are under attack and become targets, not only their lives are shattered but the future of the IP children,” she said.

She called for more efforts to protect all women in the Bangsamoro “against these senseless acts.”

Both Mendoza and Palao are known IP women’s rights defenders and advocates.

Mendoza also appealed to her colleagues in the parliament to support calls for justice.

MIPA Minister Melanio Ulama also condemned the attack.

“We condemn the treacherous killing of Jocelyn Palao,” Ulama said, adding that she had been an active and supportive member of the IP communities and had been advocating for the protection and promotion of IP rights over ancestral domain claims.

“We call upon the concerned government agencies to conduct a speedy probe and bring the perpetrators to the bar of justice,” he said.

Police scene of the crime operatives conduct post crime investigation at the site where a BAMM IP official was gunned down in Cotabato City on Tuesday night. (Photo by Ferdinandh Cabrera)

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