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John Unson - Philstar.com
March 29, 2026 | 11:34am
Five of the eight policemen ambushed in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur, on March 28, 2026, died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
Photo courtesy of Philstar.com / John Unson
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur — Five policemen were killed, while three others were wounded in an ambush in Barangay Mother Poblacion in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur on Saturday night, March 28.
The fatalities, Patrolmen Kenneth Perocho, Al-Fatah Marohom, Amil Bangsa, Arsenal Sivih, and Sayed Ridwan, all from the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, immediately succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds sustained in the attack.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and Maguindanao del Sur provincial police officials separately told reporters on Sunday morning that the five patrolmen were together in a pickup truck, on their way to their camp from nighttime duty in Shariff Aguak’s town center, when they were shot with combat rifles by gunmen positioned along the route.
They were attacked along a stretch of highway not far from Camp Akilan, where the headquarters of the Maguindanao del Sur provincial police is located.
The incident left three others, Police Lt. Alfred Gregory, Staff Sgt. Adam Kamarudin Kansi, and Patrolman Abubakar Lauban, wounded. They were immediately transported by emergency responders to the nearby Bangsamoro Regional Hospital in Shariff Aguak for treatment.
The assailants managed to escape before responding personnel from different police units in Shariff Aguak, as well as volunteer community watchmen and barangay officials, could reach the scene.
Saturday night’s deadly ambush near Camp Akilan was the third since 2018. Gunmen had killed and wounded policemen in similar attacks along the same thoroughfare, linking the camp to the center of Shariff Aguak, on Jan. 1, 2018, and subsequently on June 15, 2023.
Gunmen reportedly linked to political adversaries of incumbent Shariff Aguak local executives have also repeatedly fired 40-millimeter grenade projectiles, using M79 launchers from a distance, at residential areas in the municipality over the past 10 months.
Last January, gunmen targeted the bulletproof sports utility vehicle of Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad Baganian Ampatuan Sr. with a B40 anti-tank rocket at a busy spot in the town center, damaging the vehicle. The mayor and his escorts survived the explosion unscathed.
De Guzman condemned the fatal ambush of the five policemen in Shariff Aguak on Saturday night. He then instructed his subordinate officers in Maguindanao del Sur to enlist the help of local executives in identifying the gunmen behind the attack for prosecution.
“Our investigators and intelligence operatives will do their best to identify them so we can prosecute them to the fullest extent of law,” De Guzman said.
Ampatuan, who, as mayor, is also chairperson of the multi-sector Shariff Aguak Municipal Peace and Order Council, said he and his constituent leaders will cooperate with officials of the municipal police force in bringing the incident to a close.
