By Malu Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY – Authorities are looking at work-related motives as the reason behind the killing on Friday of a state auditor in Cotabato City, a police official said.
Colonel Portia Manalad, Cotabato City police director, said that based on their initial investigations, the killing of 60-year old Quiara Bagundang-Akmad had something to do with her job as an auditor assigned in Maguindanao province.
Manalad, however, refused to give additional details.
According to reports from the Cotabato City Police Office (CPPO), Akmad was onboard a white car being driven by her husband, who is a former police officer assigned at the Police Regional Office in the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-ARMM), when a suspect blocked their path and shot at the victim.
The attack occurred at around 11 a.m. Friday.
Manalad said the gunman was reported to have been waiting in-ambush along Avelina Street, just a few meters from a mall, for the Akmad couple to pass.
It was when the car slowed down to negotiate a curve that the gunman reportedly stepped up to the vehicle and unleashed a torrent of gunshots directed at the victim.
Manalad said Akmad’s husband was still able to return fire, but it was not clear if he was able to hit the gunman.
The husband immediately rushed his wife to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center for treatment, but was later declared dead by the doctors, the police officer said.
The police is still digging deeper their probe, especially in looking into the mastermind’s profile and whereabouts.
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