Lumad leader killed in second assassination attempt

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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—A lumad leader who survived an assassination attempt last December was shot and killed by unidentified assailants here late Tuesday afternoon, police said Wednesday.

Superintendent Danildo Tumanda, commander of the Divisoria police station, said Landong Sadrac, chairman of Barangay Limonda in the town of Opol, Misamis Oriental, was walking along Cruz-Taal Street here around 5:00 p.m. Tuesday when attacked by an undetermined number of armed men.

The victim was rushed to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center but was pronounced dead on arrival. Tumanda said Sadrac died from multiple gunshot wounds.

“We are looking at grudge as the possible motive,” he said.

Datu Norberto Puasan, also a tribal leader in Opol, said Sadrac might have been killed because of his pursuit of ancestral domain claims in behalf of Higaonon natives.

“He headed Higaonon claimants for ancestral domain areas in the towns of Opol, Manticao and Naawan,” Puasan said.

Puasan described Sadrac as a “thorn in the way of big capitalists” in the mining areas of those towns but added that they were giving the police a freehand and will wait for the result of the investigation.

Chief Inspector Rogelio Labor, Opol police chief, said that last year armed men also tried to kill Sadrac as he came out of cockfight arena in Barangay Igpit.

The incident was linked to mining rivalry in the town but no suspect was identified or arrested.