MNLF chairman's son hurt in gunfight with thieves

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A barangay chairman in this city, son of the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, was wounded in a gunfight with thieves he and policemen were chasing on Thursday afternoon, September 24.

Datu Wawi Sema, son of Muslimin Sema, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front and current labor and employment minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was hit by a bullet in the right side of his neck, now confined to the Notre Dame Hospital in Cotabato City.

Col. Jibin Bongayao, director of the Cotabato City Police Office, told reporters on Friday that Sema, chairman of Mother Barangay Tamontaka, was wounded in a gunfight with thieves who took a motorcycle at gunpoint, ridden by Yasmin Alamada Dumato, 22, and the 20-year-old Nila Guiaman Ibrahim, whom they flagged down at a stretch of a highway in another area close to the Moro enclaves under his jurisdiction.

The gunmen also took with them the mobile phones of Dumato and Ibrahim as they escaped.

Sema, volunteer community watchmen and personnel of the Cotabato City Police Precinct 3 cornered the three men and the one riding the stolen motorcycle at Barangay Tamontaka 1, but they resisted, pulled out guns and opened fire.

The thieves managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the incident using their white minivan, leaving behind the Honda Civic they forcibly took from Dumato and Ibrahim.

Their getaway vehicle was found abandoned by pursuing policemen at the Tambak area in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte.

Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous, said on Friday that Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, intelligence units of PRO-BAR and the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office and the 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army are cooperating in identifying the thieves behind the atrocity for prosecution.