Kidnapped Partido Federal ng Pilipinas coordinator found dead

COTABATO CITY — Villagers in Pandag, Maguindanao del Sur, found the body on Monday, April 8, of a municipal coordinator for the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas who had been kidnapped by gunmen in President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat, two days earlier.

Radio stations in Cotabato City and nearby provinces in Central Mindanao reported that 57-year-old Modesto Delfinado Tamayo Jr. was abducted by gunmen at his residence in President Quirino. He was then taken to Pandag in a white, heavily-tinted van.

Ranking officials from police and military units in the neighboring provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao del Sur confirmed to reporters on Tuesday morning, April 9, that Tamayo was found lifeless in a roadside rice field in Barangay Malangit, Pandag, with gunshot wounds to various parts of his body.

Capt. Anthony Basañez, acting Pandag municipal police chief, reported to the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office that Tamayo was found by villagers lying face down in a watery spot in a rice field along a highway in Sitio Bagyang, Barangay Malangit.

Members of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas in the Bangsamoro region and Region 12 condemned the murder of Tamayo by still unidentified armed men.

The president of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., called on the police and military to cooperate in bringing those responsible for the crime to justice.