Militiaman killed in grenade attack in Bangsamoro town

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A Moro militiaman was killed in a grenade attack in front of a roadside detachment in Barangay Nalapaan, Malidegao town, Bangsamoro, on Saturday morning, August 23.

The 25-year-old Bimbo Malingko Lumambas, a member of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit, succumbed to shrapnel wounds while being treated at a hospital, where he was rushed by companions.

Lt. Col. Jopy Ventura, information officer of the Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) and Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, told reporters at noon Saturday that Lumambas was standing along the highway near the detachment when a man riding a motorcycle slowly approached, stopped, threw a grenade at him, and immediately fled.

Malidegao is one of the eight towns under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) but is within the core territory of Cotabato, a component province of Region 12.

Intelligence units of PRO-BAR and the 602nd Infantry Brigade are cooperating to identify the perpetrator of the attack that left Lumambas dead.

Local executives and traditional Moro leaders said the incident could be linked to a rido, or clan war in the Maguindanaon vernacular, involving some elders of Lumambas and their relatives.