DENR executive slain in Sultan Kudarat

COTABATO CITY , Philippines   – Suspected hired killers gunned down a multi-awarded, crusading anti-illegal logging operative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat yesterday.

Inspector Serafin Acupan, provincial chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Sultan Kudarat said, 50-year-old Kamlon Ali Dimacicil died on the spot from gunshot wounds he sustained in the attack.

Dimacicil, who worked at the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Sultan Kudarat, was known for his strong advocacy for the protection of remaining forestlands in the province, and watersheds of rivers that traverse farming communities in the area.

Acupan said Dimacicil was on his way to their office in Barangay San Vicente, Isulan on board his motorcycle when two men also riding a motorcycle in tandem overtook, pulled over and, without warning opened fire with .45 caliber pistols.

One of the gunmen made sure Dimacicil was dead by shooting him twice on the back after he fell from his black Honda XRM motorcycle.

Acupan said they are now investigating on the identities of the gunmen and the motive for the murder of Dimacicil, a multi-awarded DENR employee.

Policemen, meanwhile, are still in pursuit of the alleged new recruits of the Al-Khobar extortion ring that gunned down a soldier and a civilian as they robbed a bus in Pikit, North Cotabato Friday.

Inspector Elias Dandan, chief of the Pikit municipal police, said the suspects, disguised as passengers, boarded the Cotabato City bound air-conditioned Weena Bus with body marking Erick XLVII in Kabacan, North Cotabato and declared a holdup as the vehicle was entering the town proper of Pikit.

The suspects ordered the driver of the bus to pull over and, as they collected the valuables of passengers, gunned down a soldier, Cpl. Armand Capilitan, when he resisted and attempted to pull a handgun from his waist.

The suspects also shot dead another passenger, Ramil Villamayor, before they alighted and escaped toward Barangay Inug-ug, a secluded district in Pikit.

Barangay Inug-ug is the gateway to interior barangays near the vast Liguasan Marsh, a known lair of militant Moro factions, kidnappers and renegade guerilla groups with links to the Jemaah Islamiya and Al-Qaeda.

Dandan said they have been receiving persistent feedback from local informants that the suspects were newly recruited by the Al-Khobar extortion syndicate and that the highway robbery they pulled off was a test mission, a requisite for their membership into the dreaded group.