ILIGAN CITY –A town police chief and his driver were shot dead by armed men while on board a patrol vehicle at Sitio Banisilan, Barangay Bandaraingud in Pagayawan town, Lanao del Sur, at around 7:20 p.m. Monday.
Police Colonel Madzgani Mukaram, Lanao del Sur police director, identified the victims as Executive Master Sgt. Amen Lucman Macalangan, officer-in-charge of Binidayan town police, and the latter’s driver identified as Ramel Pangcatan.
Murakam said the victims’ two companions on the vehicle — police non-uniform personnel Asliah Adiong and another police, Patrolman Nasser Arafat — were unhurt.
Mukaram said the victims were returning to Binidayan from a weekly oversight meeting at the provincial police headquarters in Marawi City when they were waylaid.
Report said that Macalangan was able to get off the vehicle and return fire before he was fatally hit. He died on the spot along with Pangcatan.
According to Lt. Col. Ian Noel Ignes, commander of the Army’s 55th Infantry Battalion, the ambush site is 400 to 500 meters from a Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit detachment.
Ignes said few days after Macalangan was assigned as officer-in-charge of the Binidayan town police, the latter had sought help from the military after he received threats that his police station would be harassed because of the smuggled cigarettes and illegal logs the police had seized.
Mukaram said the owner of the confiscated smuggled cigarettes is now a person of interest in the case.
A manhunt has been launched by the police in coordination with the military’s 103rd Infantry (Haribon) Brigade against the suspects. (PNA, Bonita L. Ermac)
