Online trader, farmer killed in central Mindanao gun attacks

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A businesswoman and a farmer were killed while two others, one of them a grade school pupil, were wounded in separate gun attacks in the neighboring Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao del Sur provinces on Friday.

The first to die in the two incidents was farmer Jeago Kasir Usman, who, along with his spouse, Ulah, and their seven-year-old child, Sarah, were together in a tricycle on their way home from the market in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur when they were shot by gunmen along the route.

Major Haron Macabanding, Shariff Aguak police chief, told reporters on Saturday that Usman died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack that hurt his wife and daughter, now in a hospital.

About three hours later, an online seller of various merchandise, April Grace Dacutin, was shot dead by gunmen just as she had emerged, on board her Mitsubishi Expander, from their residential yard in Barangay Kalawag 1 in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

Isulan and Shariff Aguak are only about 25 kilometers apart.

Lt. Col. Richelu Alucilja, chief of the Isulan municipal police, said on Saturday that Dacutin died on the spot from gunshot wounds in the neck and shoulder.

Alucilja said the men who shot Dacutin dead had escaped using a getaway motorcycle.