Cops probing motives, brains in murder of Tawi-Tawi educ exec

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- The police remain clueless on Tuesday’s daylight murder of the second highest education official in Tawi-Tawi, who was killed right before his son in a busy spot in Bongao town in the island province.

The victim, Nihma Lakian Undah, assistant schools division superintendent of Taw-Tawi, died instantly from gunshot wounds sustained in the attack.

Undah and her son were alighting from a tricycle at the entrance of the provincial office of the Department of Education in Bongao, the capital town of Tawi-Tawi, when a still unidentified gunman approached and opened fire. After shooting the victim, the suspect fled.

The victim’s son, who was wounded in the shooting, was rushed to a hospital by responding policemen and barangay officials.

Jamar Kulayan, regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said the gunman was later killed in a shootout with pursuing policemen.

“I regret it ended that way. Having the suspect alive would have provided the police the chance to obtain from him information regarding the motive of the crime,” Kulayan said.

Kulayan said he is apprehensive that the death of the culprit would also put “undue closure” to the brutal murder of his subordinate-education official.

“The investigation must not end there,” Kulayan said.

Kulayan said the ARMM’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, has ordered the region’s police director, Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, to personally oversee the investigation on the incident.

Hataman, as chairman of the inter-agency ARMM peace and order council, exercises ministerial control over the regional police office.

“Neutralizing the criminal does not necessarily eliminate crimes.  There is no substitute to justice and rule of law. I hope the investigation will still continue even after the culprit had been neutralized,” Kulayan said.

Undah was known among co-workers as a hardworking education official, who had good plans for the youth sector in the province.

Tawi-Tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali, who is a member of the provincial peace and order council, has also called for an extensive probe on the murder of Undah.

Sahali has condemned the incident, branding it an affront on the academe sector of Tawi-Tawi.

The incident, she said, shocked residents in the island province.