Maguindanao Sur mayor calls on Marcos to help stop spate of killings

COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines – About 100 people who came from Rajah Buayan town of Maguindanao del Sur aboard a convoy of 40 vehicles gathered at the city plaza here on Monday, calling for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to intervene and put an end to the killings in their town.

Rajah Buayan Mayor Bai Maruja Ampatuan-Mastura said scores of gun attacks against innocent people had been happening in Rajah Buayan, the latest of which victimized the wife and three-month old daughter of her detailed security escort, Private First Class Michael Basalo from the Army’s 34th Infantry Battalion.

Army Private First Class Michael Basalo of the Army’s 34th Infantry Battalion lost his wife and child in an ambush in Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao del Sur. —Photo courtesy of DXMS Radyo Bida

“Mr. President, please do something, we all know that you have all the power to end killings in our town,” Mastura said in vernacular during the 1 p.m. peace rally on Monday.

Mastura did not elaborate. She also did not provide statistics on how many had died in her town and adjoining towns in the past years but several killings of teachers, soldiers, police and farmers reported in the area in the last two years remained unsolved.

The victims, Jinn Utto Lumenda-Basalo, 28, and her baby, were on board a minivan driven by Nunokan Manalindo, when they were ambushed in the town’s Barangay Mileb at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12. Jinn Utto is a relative of Mayor Mastura.

Jinn Utto’s mother, Baikong Lumenda Utto, was in the same van but was unhurt. She said a minivan and two motorcycles had tailed them from Tacurong City minutes before the ambush.

“Please help us attain justice for my wife and child, please help stop the rush of killings in Rajah Buayan,” Basalo, who kept holding her slain wife’s blanket and her baby’s bib throughout the rally, appealed to the President. He said he kept dreaming of his wife asking him to seek justice.

Those who joined the rally were former Maguindanao Rep. Esmael Toto Mangudadatu, former Bangsamoro Parliament Member Antao Midtimbang and other local officials who all condemned the killings.

Those who joined the rally carried placards calling for an end to killings in Rajah Buayan.

Baikong Lumenda Utto said she witnessed her daughter and grandchild dying in her hands after the ambush.

“So painful, agonizing,” she said. “We seek justice for my daughter and grandchild.”

Lt. Argie Eyana, town police chief, said they could not yet point out the real motive of the attack but admitted some names of possible perpetrators were coming up.

He said the police still had to get statements from the family and other witnesses after the seven-day mourning.