Police still clueless in teachers' ambush in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO - Investigators were still clueless on an ambush in Midsayap town on Monday that left a public school teacher dead and a principal wounded.

Senior Inspector Henry Narciso, deputy chief of the Midsayap municipal police, said witnesses to the fatal ambush of 36-year-old teacher Romy Valenzuela were reluctant to cooperate with the investigators for fear of reprisal.

“This is one big constraint that makes the resolution of the case become very difficult,” Narciso told reporters.

Valenzuela, a Grade III teacher at the Nes Elementary School in Barangay Nes in Midsayap, died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Valenzuela’s superior, the wounded school principal Farida Campaniel, is still fighting for her life in a hospital.

Investigators said the victims were were riding a motorcycle and were on their home from a teachers' meeting when they were ambushed by unidentified gunmen.

The gunmen escaped on motorcycles.

Narciso said that the ambush could have been work-related. He said they are also looking at "old grudge" as a motive for the killing.

“We also have to establish who between the two was target of the gunmen,” Narciso said.