Army, police join forces to solve ambush of election official, husband

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Army and police agents are cooperating in identifying the culprits in the ambush of a municipal election officer and her husband in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday, March 26.

The Moro lawyer Bai Maceda Lidasan Abo, election officer for Datu Odin Sinsuat of the Commission of Elections, and her husband, Joejo Olea Abo, died instantly from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, separately told reporters on Thursday, March 27, that personnel of intelligence units under them are helping investigators put a closure to the incident that left the couple dead.

The victims were on board a Toyota Fortuner, on their way to the town center of Datu Odin Sinsuat, when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Barangay Makir in the municipality.

Relatives and friends of the slain Comelec official, a scion of a noble Moro clan in Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City, had said that they are certain that the atrocity was related to her work. They refused to elaborate, however.

Macapaz said officials of the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office and personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station have enlisted the support of barangay officials in identifying the killers of the Abos for prosecution.

Gumiran, who had condemned the incident, said intelligence operatives of 6th ID are helping police investigators determine if the gunmen who ambushed Abo and her husband are residents of Datu Odin Sinsuat, or if from another area in the province.

Their attackers, armed with assault rifles, managed to escape before responding policemen and barangay officials could reach the area where they got waylaid.