Army help cops in hunt for family's killers in Sultan Kudarat

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Army’s 601st Brigade has mobilized intelligence agents to help police identify the gunmen behind Wednesday night’s fatal ambush of a family of four in Isulan town, Sultan Kudarat.

Investigators were still clueless on the identities of the gunmen who ambushed spouses Rey and Reynalie Debarbo; and their children, Catherine Faith, 14, and eight-year-old Karen in in Barangay Sampao, Isulan.

The Debarbos were on their home from a gathering of relatives and were on board a motorcycle when the assailants emerged from one side of the road and shot them with assault rifles.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said intelligence operatives of the 601st Brigade are now helping the police gathering information that could lead to the arrest of the ambushers.

Responding policemen recovered spent shells of caliber .45 handguns and M-16 rifles from the crime scene.

Senior Superintendent Alex dela Rosa, newly-installed director of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, said the victims died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

The slain patriarch of the Debarbo family owned several passenger motorcycles and a small dry goods store in Barangay Kalawag, also in Isulan.