COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Two Army intelligence operatives conducting surveillance operations against two suspects in the Maguindanao massacre were shot and wounded in Sultan Kudarat province on Sunday, the military here said.
Colonel Prudencio Asto, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said the two soldiers, Privates First Class Sammy Ali and Nickerson Susaya, were tailing a vehicle in a highway in the border of Esperanza and Isulan in Sultan Kudarat province when two men riding on a motorbike shot them at about 9 a.m.
Asto said the gunmen appeared to be serving as escorts of the massacre suspects on board the four-wheel vehicle and noticed the Army intelligence operatives tailing them from Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, to Isulan in Sultan Kudarat.
Asto would not identify the massacre suspects the Army agents were tailing.
Ali sustained injuries in the back while Susaya was hit in his abdomen. Both are now safe in an undisclosed hospital.
Although armed, the Army intelligence operatives failed to return fire as their vehicle crashed in the roadside.
Asto said Ali and Susaya have been actively helping the police in hunting down suspects in the Maguindanao Massacre who have been able to evade the law.
Among those who are still unaccounted for are two grandsons of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and members of the defunct Maguindanao Civilian Volunteer Organization who allegedly participated in the slaughter of 58 people, mostly media workers, three years ago in Ampatuan town.
Asto said the wounded intelligence agents were also helping the Isulan PNP in identifying those behind the planting of an improvised explosive device left on a roadside and believed to be intended for Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu who was to attend the commemoration rites for the third year anniversary of the massacre last Friday.
The IED rigged in a motorbike was fashioned from two 81-millimeter and two 60-millimeter mortars with a mobile phone as trigger mechanism. It was parked on a roadside near the rotunda where Mangudadatu’s convoy passed.