Cops looking into Maguindanao board member's near-fatal shooting

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin of the Cotabato City police on Wednesday said they are still investigating possible angles that may have led to Sunday’s near-fatal shooting of Maguindanao board member Adnan Biruar.

“We are still interviewing prospective sources of information that could help shed light on the incident,” Balquin said.

Biruar, president of the Association of Barangay Captains in nearby Parang town, sustained bullet wounds in the arm and abdomen. He is an incumbent ex-officio member of the Maguindanao provincial board.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, said he ordered the provincial police office to help investigate on the incident to hasten the resolution of the crime.

“It will be done in close coordination with Senior Supt. Balquin,” Mangudadatu said.

Relatives and neighbors told journalists that Biruar, 44, was whiling away time along a busy street at his residential frontyard when the gunmen, riding a motorcycle together, pulled over and shot him with pistols.

The suspects fled after sensing that the shots they fired had triggered a commotion.

Biruar is chairman of Barangay Tagudtungan at Bongo Island, some four kilometers off Parang, a seaside town in the first district of Maguindanao.