News Briefs: Bomber slain in shootout
COTABATO CITY—A suspected bomber, who carries a P1.2-million reward on his head, died in a shootout with a team of policemen and soldiers who tried to arrest him in Matalam town in North Cotabato province on Monday, a military official said. Col. Nolly Samarita, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said Mohammad Nor Hassan, a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), resisted arrest and shot it out with government troops. Hassan, military reports said, belonged to a BIFF faction trained by Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, who was killed in a police operation in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province in January 2015. Samarita, in a report to Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez, 6th Infantry Division commander, said local Moro Islamic Liberation Front leaders and barangay officials helped government forces in locating Hassan, also known as Kamarudin Sulayman, in Barangay Central Malamote, Matalam. Lt. Col. Markton Abo, 6th ID spokesperson, said the government team was carrying two arrest warrants for Hassan’s involvement in bomb attacks in North Cotabato and Maguindanao.—EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ
Blast wounds 4 soldiers
ZAMBOANGA CITY—Four soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device went off in Lamitan City in Basilan province on Monday. Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said soldiers from the 14th Scout Ranger Company were patrolling Barangay Sabong on Monday morning when the explosion happened. The military has been conducting operations in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu in a bid to stamp out the Abu Sayyaf Group, which had been engaged in kidnapping, piracy and terrorism. The wounded soldiers were taken to the Lamitan Hospital before being transferred to the military hospital here. —JULIE ALIPALA
Sampayan
Bulosan grandson now US mayor
BINALONAN, PANGASINAN—A grandson of Carlos Bulosan, the Filipino author who fought for workers and minority rights in America, has been elected mayor of Vallejo, California, in the Nov. 8 elections there. Bob Sampayan, 64, a former police officer and city council member, obtained 14,516 votes to defeat his opponents, Landis Graden, who got 11,362 votes, and former Vallejo school board trustee Bill Pendergas, who received 9,743 votes. Sampayan is the first candidate of Filipino ancestry to be elected mayor of Vallejo. His grandfather is Bulosan’s cousin. He will serve as mayor until 2020. He was born in Fort Belvoir in Virginia and later settled in Salinas, California. —GABRIEL CARDINOZA
