GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A barangay chairwoman was gunned down in Maitum, Sarangani on Easter Sunday.
Police are eyeing “rido” or clan war as possible motive in the killing of Tonesa Sarudin.
Maitum police chief Police Major Bernand Francia said Sarudin was walking in front of the barangay hall in Barangay Mindupok when she was shot by an unidentified assailant.
Police said the victim succumbed to a bullet wound in the head from a .45 caliber pistol.
Sarudin, police said, reportedly figured in a land dispute involving two warring local groups of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the area.
Police Col. Nicomedes Olaivar, Sarangani Provincial Police Office director, ordered the deployment of additional peacekeeping forces from the Provincial Mobile Force Company and 38th Infantry Battalion to avert possible escalation of atrocities in the area.