Cops still probing shooting incidents in central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Investigators are still clueless on the killing of a policeman and the near fatal shooting of a businesswoman in separate attacks Sunday in Central Mindanao.

The slain police officer, PO3 Oscar Ronquillo, died from gunshot wounds he sustained when two men approached him in a residential area in nearby Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao and shot him with .45 caliber handguns.

Ronquillo’s nephew, Raymart, was wounded in the attack.

Police investigators are still looking into the possibility that an old grudge may be the motive for Ronquillo's murder.

Probers are also still investigating  the attempt by motorcycle-riding gunmen to kill a 53-year-old entrepreneur Norma Pigcaulan in another shooting incident in North Cotabato’s  Kabacan town.

Pigcaulan owns a store located at the town proper of Kabacan.

Supt. Leo Ajero, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said Pigcaulan was standing in front of her store, waiting for someone when one of two men riding a motorcycle together shot her repeatedly in the chest as they got close.

The suspects immediately escaped, leaving Pigcaulan sprawled on the ground.

Pigcaulan was the third woman gunmen attacked in Kabacan in the past 12 months. Two others have been killed in earlier attacks in different spots in the municipality.

More than 20 Kabacan residents have been killed by motorycycle-riding gunmen since early 2012. - John Unson