COTABATO CITY — A commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), popular for his extensive support to the government’s anti-narcotics campaign, was killed in an ambush in a secluded stretch of a highway in east of this city on Sunday.
MILF official Norodin Alipulo Mama died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack that left his companion, Esmael Zainodin Balabagan, also a member of the front, wounded.
The Cotabato City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region stated in separate reports on Monday that the two were riding a red multicab when they were attacked by gunmen.
They were on their way to the MILF’s main headquarters in Barangay Darapanan in nearby Sultan Kudarat, also in the same province, when they were attacked by ambushers who immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles.
Police investigators and intelligence agents of the 5th Marine Battalion and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division are cooperating in trying to identify the gunmen behind the atrocity. — John Felix M. Unson
