Widow calls for justice

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The widow of an employee of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities has appealed to local police authorities to investigate the circumstances that led to the killing of her husband last Jan. 10 along Gonzalo Javier street in Barangay Rosary Heights 7 this city.

Zermin Abdullah was tagged as one of those involved in the failed ambush of Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema.

Abdullah had all his identification cards with him while on board a motorcycle when the ambush took place. 

Abdullah’s wife Baikan Salik said in a signed statement that her husband was not and could not have been involved in Sema’s ambush.

She said it was more likely that her husband died not in a shootout but in a rubout, or that he was summarily killed.

“If indeed Zermin was involved in a shooting, the gunshot wounds he sustained should have been on the frontal side of his body, and not at his sides and his back as the medico-legal findings indicate,” Mrs. Abdullah said.

She gave assurance her husband had no motive to attempt to kill the vice mayor.

“My late husband was a loving father to our children. He was a dedicated government employee. We have no knowledge nor have we heard any report that he was involved in any illegal activity,” Mrs. Abdullah said.

Abdullah was attending to the needs of his sick child who was confined at the Notre Dame Hospital. “Minutes before he was killed, Zermin was at the office of the Cotabato City Water District to pay our water bills,” his widow said.

Meanwhile, Cotabato Mayor Jiapal Guiani and Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo have jointly called on the Philippine National Police to release its investigation findings soonest in order to calm down the tension that is gripping political parties in the city.