3 hurt in Kabacan shooting

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A fruit vendor and two bystanders were badly wounded on Sunday in a broad daylight gun attack at the public market of North Cotabato’s restive Kabacan town.

Senior Supt. Leo Ajero, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said the victims, Zando Bandon, Bai Guindal and Ilambai Dua, are now undergoing medication at a hospital.

Ajero said Bandon, who owns a fruit vending stall at the public market of Kabacan, could be the target of the gunman, who shot at the victim indiscriminately, wounding Guindal and Dua in the process.

“By all indications, it was Mr. Bandon who was the target of the suspect,” Ajero said.

Ajero, however, said the investigators are yet to determine the motive for the attempt to kill Bandon.

Ajero said the gunman immediately escaped using a motorcycle parked not far from the fruit stall of Bandon after sensing that the shot he fired triggered a commotion that caught the attention of policemen in an outpost about two blocks away.

Bandon was the sixth victim of a suspected hired killer in Kabacan since January. Five Kabacan residents, including re-electionist Vice Mayor Policronio Dulay, were killed in earlier attacks by motorcycle-riding gunman in different spots in the municipality.