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John Unson - Philstar.com
July 2, 2026 | 5:18pm
The body of the two slain farm workers were immediately turned over by officials of the Ampatuan Municipal Police Station to their families.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Suspected remnants of a local terror group killed with assault rifles two farm workers, tending over hundreds of ducks, in Barangay Matagabong in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur on Wednesday, July 1.
Local executives and Capt. Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Thursday that the duck raisers Jeroy Porras Dabid, 31, and his 31-year-old relative, Noel Porras Deala, died from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
They were both found lifeless in a makeshift shed in Sitio Bakoko in Barangay Matagabong, sprawled on the ground, by community leaders and policemen dispatched to the area after villagers reported the automatic gunshots that reverberated through the area early on.
Police investigators found empty shells of 5.56 millimeter M16 rifle bullets scattered around the spot where both men were killed.
The slain farm workers are both residents of the nearby Barangay Paitan in Esperanza town in Sultan Kudarat, one of the four provinces in Region 12.
Dabid and Deala are working for a trader in Esperanza engaged in large-scale production of duck eggs, according to their relatives.
They told police investigators that the slain Dabid and Deala had no known enemies and were both friendly, even to strangers passing by the areas where they raise ducks for egg production.
Provincial police officials had told reporters that tipsters had relayed to local executives and investigators from the Ampatuan Municipal Police Station that remaining members of the defunct Dawlah Islamiya killed Dabid and Deala on suspicion that they were both “informers” reporting to intelligence agents of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade about the movements of a few terrorists holding out in areas around Sitio Bakoko in Barangay Matagabong.
Salanguit and officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office had separately told reporters that members of the multi-sector Ampatuan Municipal Peace and Order Council and traditional Moro datus in the municipality are helping investigators identify the gunmen behind the atrocity for prosecution.
