Ambushers of cop chief, 6 Lanao Sur folk hunted

CAMP S.K. PENDATUN, Maguindanao — Policemen are still in pursuit of some 20 armed men responsible for last Monday’s fatal ambush of seven people, including a municipal police chief, in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.

Senior Superintendent Akmad Mamalinta, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said he has dispatched emissaries to convince the relatives of the six civilians not to retaliate and instead help investigators build up criminal cases against the ambushers.

Only one policeman, SP04 Kurais Tambugao, not six as earlier reported by local leaders, was killed in the ambush.

The other fatalities, Mitbak Sangbaan, siblings Amerudin, Tato and Abdillah Tambugao, Allan Patandaya and militiaman Latip Bato, were all relatives of the slain police officer.

Sangabaan was president of the Association of Barangay Chairmen in Tubaran, a poor town in Lanao del Sur.

A policeman wounded in the attack, identified only as SPO1 Blah, was rushed to a hospital in Cotabato City for treatment.

Mamalinta said the family of Tambugao, police chief of Tubaran town, has been locked in a rido (clan war) with an equally armed family in Malabang.