Police, Army probe ambush of top BARMM exec's convoy

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and military are cooperating in identifying the gunmen who shot with assault rifles three vehicles in the convoy of Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua in Barangay Bitu in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Saturday afternoon, August 15.

No one was hurt in the incident but the gunshot that reverberated through the area caused panic among villagers in farming enclaves around.

The three vehicles in Macacua’s convoy, including the bulletproof Toyota Land Cruiser he was riding in, were hit by bullets from assault rifles the gunmen used in the attack.

Macacua and his companions were on their way to the Bangsamoro regional capitol in Cotabato City, from a gathering in Barangay Gambar in Kabuntalan, Maguindanao del Norte of thousands of members and supporters of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. 

Their activity in Barangay Gambar was capped off with his symbolic assumption as chairman of the party, which has candidates for seats in the 80-member parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Commission on Elections, the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are now all set for the September 14 first ever parliamentary elections in BARMM’s five provinces, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, and three cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Founders of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, among them its pioneer figurehead, the regional parliament member Tomanda Antok, relinquished the party’s leadership to Macacua during Saturday’s event in Barangay Gambar, attended by thousands, including local government officials and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from across Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces.

By implication, the turnover by Antok of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s leadership to Macacua made him the bloc's candidate for the parliament too. Mr. Macacua filed his candidacy for the BARMM parliament last May 7 as an independent candidate.

The Bangsamoro Federalist Party, Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, Basilan Gov. Mujiv  Hataman and the regional director of PRO-BAR, Police Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia and the acting commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, released on Sunday separate written condemnations of the ambush of Macacua’s convoy in Barangay Bitu.

BARMM Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, president of the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front that also pitted candidates for the regional parliament, said they want the perpetrators of the atrocity identified and prosecuted in court.

Ethnic Villagers in Barangay Bitu told reporters on Sunday that the gunmen who shot with assault rifles the three vehicles immediately escaped towards a hinterland along the highway from where they opened fire as the convoy passed through.

Abecia and Bunayog separately told reporters on Sunday that officials of Army and police units in Maguindanao del Norte are cooperating in putting a closure to the incident.

Bunayog said personnel of their intelligence units have enlisted the help of traditional Moro leaders in Datu Odin Sinsuat in identifying the culprits for them to be prosecuted by PRO-BAR in court for their offense.