DPWH employee wounded in Maguindanao ambush

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Bandits on Thursday ambushed a vehicle of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) while in Datu Unsay town, wounding its driver and causing panic among other motorists.  

The municipal police of Datu Unsay, a hostile town in the second district of Maguindanao, said there are indications that the gunmen who fired assault rifles at a vehicle of the DPWH office in Region 12 were members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

The driver of the vehicle, Virgilio Agad, 56, who sustained a gunshot wound in his left foot, is now undergoing medication at the Maguindanao provincial hospital in nearby Shariff Aguak town, also in the same province.

Agad had told probers the gunmen attacked while he was maneuvering on a downhill curve in a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos Highway in Datu Unsay, en route to Koronadal City.

Agad said he was fortunate that none of the four wheels of the DPWH-12 Toyota Innova vehicle he was driving was hit in the initial volley of gunfire, enabling him to drive farther and escape from the ambush scene.

The ambushers fled to a nearby hinterland as combatants of the Army’s 34^th Infantry Battalion came close.

Lt. Colonel Edgar Delos Reyes, commanding officer of 34th Infantry Battalion, said Army intelligence operatives are now helping the police establish the identities of the culprits to hasten their prosecution.