EDITORIAL - Ambush in Maguindanao

Video footage showed a man emerging from a white van, and then bending one knee as he fired a rocket-propelled grenade. Another man came out from the back seat and fired a rifle. The RPG struck a passing sport utility vehicle.

The attack was not staged in Ukraine or the Gaza Strip, but in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao del Sur. And the target was the town’s Mayor Akmad Ampatuan Sr.

Ampatuan’s SUV is reportedly bullet-proof, and he survived the attack at 6:30 a.m. last Sunday in a residential area in the town. Two of his bodyguards were slightly injured. Pursuit operations led to the killing of three of the suspects along the national highway; a fourth is still being hunted down. 

Probers are reportedly eyeing hired guns in the attack – the fourth attempt on Ampatuan’s life.

The ambush raises questions about the peace and order situation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Where do people get RPGs in the BARMM? The assailant clearly knew how to use the weapon, hitting his moving target, except the mayor’s armored vehicle repelled the attack.

The ambush was staged just days after four soldiers were killed and another wounded in an attack in Munai town, Lanao del Norte.

Members of the terrorist group Dawlah Islamiyah are being eyed in the attack at around 10:30 a.m. last Friday as the soldiers were on their way to buy provisions outside their base. The soldiers were reportedly part of a task force promoting civil-military relations in the area.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace agreement with the government in 2014, condemned the attack on the soldiers. Both the MILF and government forces can do more in curbing armed violence in the BARMM, which could escalate amid the uncertainty over the holding of the first parliamentary elections in the autonomous region.

The video on the ambush has been seen around the world. The government may have to dispel perceptions that such attacks are common nationwide. And it will have to do more to contain armed violence in the BARMM.