COTABATO CITY (PNA) – A barangay chairman was gunned down in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao, police said on Monday, Oct. 10.
Town police chief Major Michael Ameril identified the victim as Norson Utto, chairman of Barangay Panadtaban in adjacent Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao.
Investigation showed that the victim was washing his motorbike on a roadside in Barangay Barurao at past 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9, when two men arrived on a motorbike.
“One of them shot Utto without provocation,” Ameril said in a radio interview, adding that the victim died on the spot.
Ameril said he spoke with the victim’s wife who said Utto was involved in a feud with another family in his barangay.
Police found empty shells for a .45-caliber pistol at the crime scene.
Also on Sunday, motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a motorcycle driver on the national highway in Barangay Margues, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
Lt. Col. Nelson Madiwo, town police chief, said the victim, Pilot Panambulan, 29, was driving a motorcycle with his father, Kilos Panambulan, 65, when the gunmen onboard a separate motorbike shot them.
“Miraculously, the father was unharmed,” Madiwo said.
Motive of the attack, police said, could be personal grudge or “rido” (clan war).