COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A district school supervisor was killed while a school principal was wounded in an ambush staged by two unidentified motorcycle-riding men at SK Pendatun, Maguindanao, on the eve of Election Day.
A military report from the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade disclosed that the 11:05 a.m. shooting killed Abas Minsu, Maguindanao district school supervisor, and wounded Teng Magindra, school principal of the Tumbabay Elementary School in SKP town.
Colonel Dickson Hermoso, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the military spot report disclosed that the victims were also riding a motorcycle from Barangay (village) Bagundang on their way to nearby Ramcor village when attacked.
Based on the empty shells found in the crime scene, Hermoso said the gunmen were armed with .45 caliber pistols.
The victims were immediately rushed to a hospital in nearby Tacurong City. Minsu was already dead by the time his rescuers brought him to the hospital.
Lawyer Wasib Yasin, Maguindanao election officer, said the education officials were supposed to act as board of election inspectors for Monday’s computerized polls.
Hermoso said the military has been closely coordinating with the police in the area to find out if the ambush was election-related.
A day before, a similar ambush happened at Kilometer 30 in North Upi, Maguindanao, when unidentified armed men opened fire on a vehicle convoy of South Upi Vice Mayor Omar Baba.
Baba, a candidate for mayor in Monday’s polls, was not hurt.
But his nephew, Kiang Nasser died on the spot, and another kin, Turno Omar was hospitalized of gunshot wounds, earlier military report said.
Baba’s vehicle convoy came from a United Nationalist Alliance miting de avance in Sultan Kudarat town and was on their way home when waylaid, the report said.