Barangay official dead, 2 hurt in Carmen town attack

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  – Gunmen killed a barangay tanod and wounded two others, one of them a policeman, as they attacked Thursday a roadside security detachment in Carmen town in the province.

Captain Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, identified the slain barangay tanod as Jovencio Macmac of Barangay Ugalingan, a remote district in Carmen.

Macmac and his companions, PO1 Ronan Prospero, and another civilian volunteer name Efinito Itac, were inside their detachment along a stretch of a national highway in Carmen, which the gunmen surrounded and shot with assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenade projectiles.

Prospero, a member of the Carmen municipal police force, and Itac were both wounded in the attack. They are now confined at a hospital, undergoing medication.

Senior Supt. Danny Peralta, director of the North Cotabato police, said investigators are still to determine the identities of the gunmen and their motive for attacking the detachment.

Mendoza said the Carmen municipal police enlisted the support of all barangay chairmen in the area in identifying the culprits.