Couple shot dead in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Gunmen shot dead Thursday afternoon a still unidentified motorcycle-riding couple in a secluded stretch of a national highway in Taviran District in Datu Odin Sinsuat town south of Maguindanao province.

Responding police probers said the couple seemed headed to the north, either to Cotabato City or in Awang area in Datu Odin Sinsuat, when they were attacked.

Chief Superintendent Lendsy Sinsuat, municipal police chief, said the suspects may have positioned themselves from one side of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Sitio Katulungan in Barangay Taviran and shot the victims with handguns as they came close.

“Our investigators are still trying to establish the identities of the victims,” Sinsuat said.

The spot where the victims were ambushed is a known dumping site for cadavers of people snatched from somewhere and executed summarily by captors, most of them with shady characters and wanted by law.

The couple died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.