The Moro National Liberation Front and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are working together to identify the gunmen behind the fatal ambush of a senior municipal MNLF leader and his son in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur on Monday, October 13.
Officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade told reporters on Tuesday, October 14, that Abusama Agao, his son Norodin, and daughter Jahara were together in a tricycle when they were attacked by gunmen along a highway in Barangay Kapinpilan, Ampatuan.
Agao, a longtime commander of the MNLF and member of the barangay council in Matagabong, Ampatuan, and his son, a volunteer community watchman, both died instantly from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack, which left his daughter Jahara wounded.
Local officials and traditional Moro leaders in Ampatuan said the gunmen who carried out the ambush immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles.
The slain Agao, who was close to MNLF central committee chairman Muslimin Sema, was known for his active involvement in peacebuilding activities and law enforcement operations with the police and military in Barangay Matagabong and nearby areas in Ampatuan.
Sema, who is also labor and employment minister in the Bangsamoro regional government, condemned the atrocity and urged its speedy resolution by the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
Sema said provincial MNLF leaders in the adjoining Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces are helping police investigators and local executives in Ampatuan work toward a speedy closure to the incident.
PRO-BAR director Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman said officials of the Ampatuan Municipal Police Station and their immediate superior, Col. Sultan Salman Sapal, Maguindanao’s provincial police director, are personally overseeing the investigation into the attack.