Maguindanao planning officer gunned down outside school

COTABATO CITY – Unidentified men on Friday shot dead a senior official of Maguindanao province while he was picking up his child from a private school here, the police reported Saturday.

Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu condemned the killing of Sadat Pandalat, the Maguindanao provincial planning officer, and urged the police to fast-track the investigation.

Senior Superintendent Rolen Balquin, Cotabato City police chief, said investigators were still trying to establish the identities and the possible motive of the two killers of Pandalat.

He said one angle the police were looking into was personal grudge.

Pandalat had parked his car on one side of Sinsuat Avenue as he waited for his child to emerge from the private elementary school when an unidentified man approached and shot him several times.

The gunman then headed for a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. The perpetrators disappeared in the traffic jam the shooting caused.