Videoke pub gunfight leaves mayor's driver dead

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A driver of a town mayor was killed while a policeman was wounded in a brief firefight on Sunday night between two groups of drunken men inside a videoke pub in Maguindanao’s nearby Parang town.

Senior Insp. Herry Gubat, chief of Parang’s municipal police, identified the fatality as Parih Sidun, driver of Mayor Nasser Imam of Matanog town in the first district of Maguindanao.

Sidun and his companions, among them still unidentified policemen, were having a drinking spree inside a videoke outlet in Barangay Landasan in Parang, when they figured in a brawl with another group led by PO1 Abdullah Hashim.

Gubat said the two groups engaged each other in a brief gunfight, which resulted to the death of Sidun.

Hashim, who belong to the Regional Public Safety Battalion of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, was wounded in the encounter.

“We are still investigating on the incident. We need to know the names of all the people, from both sides, that figured in this firefight. Sadly, we’re potential witnesses are reluctant to help us for fear of reprisals,” Gubat told reporters.

Gubat said police intelligence operatives have been tasked to help look into the incident and build criminal cases against both sides.