INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
PARANG, Maguindanao del Norte, Philippines — Barely a week after an ambush that killed a Marine sergeant in Marogong town of Lanao del Sur, another police officer was killed and his companion wounded in Picong town of the same province, only 42 kilometers away from where the first incident happened.
But unlike the first incident that was blamed on a terrorist group, the ambush on Saturday in Barangay Uban-Uban of Picong that killed Police Staff Sgt. Albert Magdayao of the Lanao del Sur 2nd Police Mobile Force Company (PMFC) was done by suspected carnappers, according to Police Capt. Gian Carlo Demetion, assistant police chief of Picong.
Magdayao’s companion, Cpl. Sammy Marohon, also of the 2nd PMFC, was wounded.
The two policemen were part of the police team who, backed by the Philippine Marines, responded to an alert on a stolen vehicle in the town’s Barangay Pindulonan.
They were on their way back to their unit after having recovered the vehicle when they were ambushed, according to Police Brig. Gen. John Guyguyon, director of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police.
Demetion said five suspected car thieves were involved in the ambush, three of whom were residents of Picong.
On Feb. 4, a Marine sergeant died while three others were injured when they were ambushed in Marogong.
Marine Sgt. Tonti Melbert Pamaran was killed in an ambush by suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiyah-Maute terror group under Faharudin Hadjisatar alias Abu Zacharia, according to Lt. Joseph Chicano, Marogong police chief.
Pamaran and his injured companions — Cpl. Mark Anthony Bañares, Sgt. Jeram Aradji and Sgt. Joan Aniñon, all under the Marine Battalion Landing Team 2 — were returning to their base when they were waylaid by about 10 gunmen at 3:50 p.m. in Barangay Cabasaran, Marogong town.