Aspiring Lanao del Sur village chair slain in ambush

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY — Heavily armed men ambushed and killed on Wednesday morning a candidate for village chairman in Kapatagan town, Lanao del Sur.

Colonel Robert S. Daculan, Lanao del Sur police director, identified the fatality as Kamar Bilao Bansil, who died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds. His wife and a son were seriously injured.

Daculan said unidentified gunmen opened fire on their Suzuki multicab vehicle as they were traveling along a dirt road in Barangay Sigayan, where Bansil was seeking the village chairman’s post.

Daculan said responding policemen rushed Bansil’s wife, Jasmin, and son, Mano, who suffered gunshot wounds in different parts of their body, to the town health station.

Police said the ambushers were led by Pabil Pagrangan, husband of the incumbent chairwoman of Barangay Sigayan.

Bansil is running as an independent candidate but is very popular among his constituents, police probers said.

“Manhunt against the group of Pagrangan has been launched,” Daculan said in a radio interview.

Responding police found about 30 empty shells of M-16 rifle at the ambush site.

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