Barangay exec, bookkeeper hurt in Cotabato City gun attack

COTABATO CITY — A barangay councilor and their office bookkeeper were badly hurt when gunmen attacked them while in a roadside store in Barangay Rosary Heights 9 in Cotabato City on Saturday night, November 2.

Brig Gen. Romeo Jaime Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Sunday that Jordan Kalipa, 47, an incumbent barangay councilor in Rosary Heights 9, and their 33-year-old barangay bookkeeper, Virlie Joy Quijano, 33, sustained bullet wounds in different parts of their bodies.

They are now both confined in a hospital, guarded by policemen.

Kalipa and Quijano were whiling away time at a store along a thoroughfare in Barangay Rosary Heights 9 when gunmen approached them and opened fire.

Their attackers managed to escape before responding volunteer community watchmen and barangay officials could reach the scene.

Macapaz said intelligence agents and investigators in the Cotabato City Police Office and barangay officials are cooperating to identify the culprits for prosecution.