MATALAM, North Cotabato (PNA) – A police manhunt is under way against a group behind the ambush-slay of a former barangay chairman and his worker in Barangay Kidama here Sunday, August 14.
Police Lt. Col. Jingle Parallag, town police chief, identified Monday, August 15, the victims as Felipe Sara Maluenda, 61, former chairman of Barangay Kidama, and Joseph Mariano Flores, a laborer and resident of Alamada, North Cotabato.
Parallag said Maluenda was driving his sedan together with Flores on their way to Barangay Kilada when gunmen positioned on both sides of the road in a local sugarcane plantation opened fire on them around 7 p.m.
Both victims were taken to separate hospitals here but were declared dead on arrival by the attending physicians.
“The victims obtained fatal wounds in different parts of their body,” she said.
Police recovered eight empty shells from an M16 rifle, another empty shell from a .45 caliber pistol, and other pieces of evidence.
“The suspects swiftly ran into the sugarcane plantation after the incident,” Parallag said.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” she said, declining to give more information so as not to jeopardize police operation.