Maguindanao del Sur map. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur — Two police officers were killed and four others were injured in an ambush by still unidentified assailants in Barangay Poblacion here on Wednesday night.
Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, police regional director of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said the police officers, all belonging to the Provincial Police Mobile Company, were heading for the provincial police office in Datu Hofer town when ambushed at 8 p.m.
“I condemn this act by terrorists, we are pursuing them,” Nobleza said without revealing the identities of the attackers.
“Manhunt is on-going with the help of the Philippine Army in Shariff Aguak,” he added.
Nobleza withheld the identities of the slain police officers until their immediate relatives were officially informed.
Wounded in the attack were Police Chief Master Sgt. Rey Vincent Gertos, Staff Sgt. Benjie Delos Reyes, Patrolman Alib Abdulgafor, and Patrolman RJ Bal.
The victims were rushed to the Maguindanao del Sur provincial hospital, located about a kilometer away from the ambush site. Two of them died along the way.
No one has claimed responsibility but the police suspected the gunmen could be members of the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) which maintain holdouts in Shariff Aguak and nearby towns.