Family of 4 massacred

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  – Four members of a Muslim family were massacred through firing squad by armed men who also torched their house shortly before midnight Friday in a coastal village east of this city, police said.

The gunmen though spared a two-year-old girl from the carnage.

Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo, Zamboanga City police chief, identified the victims as Akmadol Maharadol, 50, a widower, and his children Iyong, 25, married; Radzma, 14; and Tong, 10, all residents of Barangay Panubigan, this city. Spared was a daughter of Iyong.

De Ocampo said investigation showed that the victims were fast asleep when the unidentified gunmen barged into their house about 11 p.m. Friday and shot the victims.

“The suspects burned some parts of the house before they escaped to unknown direction,” De Ocampo said citing the reports reaching his office.

Responding police forces recovered from the crime scene cartridges of assorted empty shells fired from M14, caliber .45 pistol, garand and shotgun.

The survivor young girl was recovered and placed under the custody of her grandmother.

Further police investigation also showed that the victims were former natives of Taguisian, Olutanga Island in Zamboanga Sibugay province but transferred to Panubigan village as tenants of a parcel of land.

The police probers believed that the motive of the attack was personal grudge as the elder Maharadol had been in conflict with a certain personality while they were still in Olutanga.