COTABATO CITY, July 30 – Police and military forces are hunting down members of
outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) who tried to shoot down a
private chopper carrying Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Toto Mangudadatu and his
brother Saturday, police said Sunday.
Mangudadatu,
his brother Mayor Freddie Mangudadatu of Mangudadatu town, Maguindanao were
aboard a helicopter piloted by Capt. Dennis Figueroa en route to the Army’s 6th
Infantry Division headquarters for a speaking engagement when the shooting
occurred over the town of Datu Salibo.
They
were all unharmed.
”We
are hunting them down, we have intelligence information about the attackers,”
Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao provincial police director, said.
Mangudadatu
who was seated beside the pilot of the three-seat aircraft said a bullet almost
hit his head. A bullet hole was found in the glass right window.
The
Maguindanao police, in hunting down the attackers, were backed by elements of
the 40th Infantry Battalion.
Tello
said the gunmen fired at the chopper as it passed above Sitio Dagading,
Barangay Tee, Datu Salibo town at 10 a.m.
A day
earlier, BIFF members who pledge allegiance to ISIS, set off an improvised bomb
that injured nine soldiers of the 40th IB in Raja Buayan, a few kilometers from
Datu Salibo.
Mangudadatu
has been known for his hard stance against jihadists believed to be hiding in
Maguindanao. On several occasions, Mangudadatu spearheaded summit against
terrorism in the province that earned the ire of the BIFF.
He
said he was not cowed by the attempt against his life, stressing what he has
been doing is for the sake of poor Moro people in Maguindanao. (Edwin O.
Fernandez/PNA)
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