Gunmen ambush outgoing Maguindanao mayor

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – Gunmen ambushed and seriously wounded yesterday near a police station here an outgoing three-term mayor in a town in Maguindanao.

Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, director of the Cotabato City police, said Talitay Mayor Cabili Sumagka, who is to assume as vice mayor of the same town on June 30, was in his pick-up truck on his way to the Rosary Heights when motorcycle-riding men overtook and opened fire with .45 caliber hand guns at noon.

The bullets pierced the door and tinted window at the front passenger’s side of the pick-up truck, hitting Sumagka in the abdomen.

The motorcycle-riding gunmen escaped toward a residential area, leaving behind Sumagka and his companions.

Responding policemen from the city’s Police Precinct No. 2, which is less than 100 meters away, chased the suspects, but failed to arrest them.

Relatives of Sumagka are certain the attempt on the mayor’s life was politically-motivated.

There were election-related hostilities among followers of political leaders in Talitay during the campaign period.

A grenade attack on a gathering of followers of the town’s incoming mayor, who is to replace Sumagka on June 30, killed one and caused serious injuries to more than a dozen others.

Dangane said the city police and the Army’s anti-crime Task Force Tugis are now investigating the ambush of Sumagka.