Barangay chairman killed, 5 others hurt

COTABATO CITY — A barangay chairman was killed while five others, one of them a policeman, have been wounded when a drunken soldier they were trying to pacify tossed at them a fragmentation grenade in Tulunan, North Cotabato the other day.

The suspect, identified only as Cpl. Cocal of the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion, was himself gunned down by responding civilian volunteers while attempting to pull out another grenade from his pocket after the powerful explosion.

Tulunan’s police identified the slain barangay official as Adjutor Padillo of Sibsib, a farming community in Tulunan, an agricultural town in the second district of North Cotabato.

Padillo died on the spot from multiple shrapnel wounds he sustained in the blast.

Investigators said Cocal, already reeking with liquor, first created trouble inside a videoke pub in Barangay Sibsib by challenging other customers to a fight.

Informed by residents of the commotion triggered by Cocal’s misbehavior, Padillo rushed to the scene, along with several barangay tanods and a policeman, SPO2 Gerry Agustino, to pacify the soldier. A furious Cocal, instead of allowing himself to be brought to the barangay hall, pulled from his pocket an M-67 fragmentation grenade which he tossed to Padillo’s group. The blast was so strong that it was heard two barangays away from the scene.

The explosion also caused serious injuries to Agustino, who is a member of Tulunan’s police force, Felipe Pauya, Mark Solog, Raymund Valencia and a woman named Rolita Robiño.

The wounded victims are now confined at a hospital in North Cotabato, undergoing treatment of their shrapnel wounds. — John Unson