MAX KLEINEN-UNSPLASHCOTABATO CITY — The vice-mayor of Datu Piang town in Maguindanao del Sur was wounded when a gunman shot him while talking to his constituents during an outreach activity on Monday morning.
Local executives in Datu Piang, a hostile town, and senior officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) told reporters an hour after the incident in Barangay Magaslong that the assailant of Vice-Mayor Omar S. Samama had escaped amid the commotion triggered by the attack.
Mr. Samama was delivering a message during their local government unit’s humanitarian mission in Barangay Magaslong when he was hit by a bullet in the upper torso, fired from a distance by a lone attacker.
The wounded vice-mayor is a member of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, whose political figurehead is Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro regional government.
He is now in a hospital where emergency responders brought him for treatment.
Police Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of PRO-BAR, had told reporters that their investigators and local officials in Datu Piang are cooperating in investigating the incident.
Army Brig. Gen. Donald D. Gumiran, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said officials of the 601st Infantry Brigade are helping the PRO-BAR identify the gunman. — John Felix M. Unson
