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COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed the son of a ranking Cotabato City government official shortly before dusk near the seat of the Bangsamoro regional government on Monday, August 21.
Police said the victim, 32-year old Muslim religious scholar Mohammad Hessam Midtimbang, was rushed to a hospital where he died.
Midtimbang, an ustadz, was a member of a political family. His father Guiadzuri is the city administrator of Cotabato while his brother Wahab is a city councilor.
The victim was a member of the Bangsamoro Darul Iftah, a council which makes decisions concerning Islamic law, and hosted a local radio program devoted to Islamic education and promotion.
Major John Vincent Bravo, commander of Cotabato’s Police Station 2, said Midtimbang was shot several times as he came out of a massage clinic in front of a fruit stand on Governor Gutierrez Avenue, Rosary Heights 9, a few meters from the Bangsamoro Government Complex.
“He was about to board his car when the gunmen, who waited for him, attacked,” Bravo told reporters.
Crime scene investigators found six caliber .45 pistol slugs in the area.
Midtimbang’s killing came a week after the head of the Cotabato City government’s general services office was attacked by still unidentified gunmen on Sebastian Street.
The official, Pedro Tato Jr., was wounded and survived the attack but his driver, Dandy Anonat, was killed.
The shooting took place on August 15, just a few minutes after a man on a motorcycle threw a grenade near the ancestral house of former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sheriff Abas at Rosary Heights 3 in Cotabato City.
No one was hurt in the lawn explosion, and investigators, aside from learning that the lone assailant was hooded and rode a motorcycle, are facing a blank wall as of posting time.
Colonel Querubin Manalang Jr., the chief of Cotabato City police, said investigators were working to determine the motive for the grenade attack.
Meanwhile, a barangay chairman from another area in the Bangsamoro region survived a gun attack at Zone 6, Calle Unidad, Barangay Lunzuran, in Zamboanga City on Monday night.
Police said the victim, 57-year-old Salam Mujala Yusop, was wounded in the gun attack.
Yusop is the barangay chairman of Lower Benembengan in Sumisip town in Basilan province.
Police identified the assailant as Vicente Locson of Timpul, Isabela City in Basilan.
Investigators said Yusop was able to fire back, hitting Locson in the leg.
The incident brought to 60 the number of shooting incidents in Zamboanga City since January. – with reports from Richard Falcatan/Rappler.com
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