Tawi-Tawi mayor survives attack in Zambo City

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Unidentified men shot and wounded the mayor of Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi province in the village of Baliwasan here on Sunday morning, police said.

Mayor Jasper Que, his driver who was identified only as Adjing, and staff member Jurmina Hashid were traveling from the airport to the city center at 9 a.m. when two men on a motorcycle fired at them, said Senior Insp. Helen Galvez, spokesperson of the city police.

Que was hit in his arm, leg and buttocks, and was taken to Ciudad Medical Hospital. Doctors later declared him out of danger.

Investigators have yet to establish the motive for the gun attack, said Supt. Luisito Magnaye, city police chief.

Reports said Que, who is on his second term as mayor, is not running for reelection or for any post in the May 9 national elections.

The shooting happened two days before the official campaign period for the presidential election kicks off. But Galvez, in a report by Agence France-Presse, said it was not immediately clear if the incident was election-related.

Que earlier announced that he would support the candidacy of former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, and the reelection bid of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

 2 dead in Kidapawan

In Kidapawan City, the chief security officer of the North Cotabato provincial capitol and his companion were shot and killed in Arakan town on Sunday.

Chief Insp. Felix Fornan, Arakan town police chief, said Bernabe Abanilla, chief of the civil security unit of the capitol, and his companion, Degul Semillano, had just arrived in front of a church at 8 a.m. when three men on a motorcycle fired at Abanilla’s pickup truck.

Abanilla and Semillano, who had bullet wounds in their heads and bodies, died while being taken to a local hospital.

In 2014, Abanilla survived an attack in Kidapawan City. He was inside his vehicle parked in front of a pharmacy when motorcycle-riding men shot him.

 Village exec wounded

In Cebu province, a village chief in Lapu-Lapu City was shot and wounded by still unknown attackers on Saturday night, police said.

Chief Insp. Mark Gifter Sucalit, chief of the Lapu-Lapu police’s intelligence branch, said Isabelito Darnayla, Basak village chief, was headed to the village center aboard his pickup truck at 7:30 p.m. when a tricycle cut his path. When Darnayla stopped, a man approached his Ford Ranger and shot him several times.

Darnayla was hit in the left arm and back, and was taken to Mactan Doctors Hospital.

PO1 Efren Labiste, one of the investigators, said police were unsure how many suspects were involved in the incident.

Police are looking at politics, a business transaction or a personal grudge as possible motives in the attack.

“We cannot dismiss the possibility [that the attack was motivated by politics] considering that he is an incumbent barangay captain and it is now the election season,” said Senior Insp. Zenaido Pastorfide, homicide section head of the city police.

Pastorfide said they were not also discounting the possibility that Darnayla may have earned the ire of some of his constituents in the performance of his function as village chief.

The shooting may also be business-related as Darnayla owns several buildings in the city, which he is leasing to several tenants, police said. Reports from Julie S. Alipala , Edwin O. Fernandez and Williamor A. Magbanua, Inquirer Mindanao; Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; and AFP