Off-duty soldier slain, another wounded in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY –– A soldier was killed while his companion, also a soldier, was injured when they were attacked along a busy street here around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 2.

Captain Rustom Pastolero, chief of the police station 2 here, identified the slain victim as Corporal Herminio Belano, 29, a resident of San Mateo, Isabela; and the wounded as Corporal Pacifico Obillo, 32, of Balaoan, La Union.

Both victims belonged to the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion and assigned at a detachment in Sitio Bubong of Barangay Kalanganan.

Pastolero said the victims, in civilian clothes and off-duty, were heading to the city proper together on a motorcycle, when gunmen shot them at the corner of Gonzalo Javier Street and Oblate Drive.

Pastolero said the gunmen tailed the soldiers on another motorbike.

Belano succumbed to a bullet wound in the head. Obillo is still in critical condition at a government hospital here, said Pastolero.

Police found three empty shells for a caliber-45 pistol. It was not known if the soldiers were armed when attacked.

The shooting happened amid the heavy presence of soldiers and police personnel in the city.