Police form teams to probe slay of local execs in Maguindanao Sur
COTABATO CITY—- The police in Maguindanao del Sur announced the creation of special teams that will look into recent killings in the province, which has drawn condemnation from Sen. Robinhood Padilla.
Padilla on Thursday filed Senate Resolution No. 1203, expressing alarm at the trend of killings involving those belonging to the Teduray tribe, an indigenous people’s (IP) group in the Maguindanao provinces.
“The rising number of killings within the Teduray tribe is alarming, with the latest count of defenseless individuals killed reaching 75. It must be emphasized that injustice and violence do not have a place in any civilized society and no just cause justifies brutalities against the lives of all persons,” said Padilla, who chairs the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs.
He noted that since 2018, the Teduray and Teduray-Lambingan leaders have become victims of threats and intimidation – and worse, killings “for strongly advocating against land encroachment, and displacement or dispossession of their ancestral lands.”
Police in Maguindanao del Sur had created a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to probe the killing of Teduray leader Elvin Moires, 50, councilman of Bongo village in South Upi town, on Sept. 17.
Moires was going home at past 10 p.m. after attending a wedding when a lone gunman shot him in the head and body. Fellow tribal members rushed him to a local hospital but he died along the way, according to Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) Supreme Tribal Chieftain Leticio Datuwata.
Ancestral domain issue
Moires, according to Datuwata, was a strong advocate of promoting and protecting the Teduray ancestral domain.
“He is leading us in protecting our rights, including the protection of our ancestral domain,” Datuwata said, adding that Moires has been subjected to harassment in the past years when gunmen indiscriminately fired at his house in Barangay Bongo.
Datuwata said the IP communities in South Upi continue to be hounded by fear as another leader was killed.
Just last month, gunmen shot dead South Upi Vice Mayor Roland Benito, another Teduray leader.
On April 30, unidentified gunmen also killed Timuay Juanito Promboy, 55, village councilman of Barangay Mother Tuayan in Datu Hoffer town as he was heading home on a motorbike.
On Dec. 20, 2022, Jocelyn Palao, the head of the ancestral domain division of the Bangsamor Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, was killed by gunmen after leaving her office in Cotabato City.
Persons of interest
Meanwhile, police investigators have identified several persons of interest in the murder of a councilor of Buluan town, Maguindanao del Sur, on Tuesday afternoon.
Capt. Cemafranco Cemacio, Buluan police chief, said initial investigation showed that Councilor Mohammad Usman Alamada, 57, was likely killed due to a personal grudge.
Cemacio said Alamada was sitting near the entrance of his family-owned roadside restaurant in Barangay Poblacion of Buluan when attacked at past 3 p.m. by assailants who came on board a black Toyota Wigo car bearing no license plate.
Police scene-of-the-crime operatives found 10 empty shells for an M-16 rifle in the vicinity of the attack.
According to Cemacio, prior to the attack, Alamada, a member of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, received death threats from unidentified men but he did not seek police assistance.
Col. Ruel Sermese, Maguindanao del Sur police director, has formed a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG-Alamada) to fasttrack the identification, arrest and filing of charges against the suspects.
“This despicable act of violence reflects a shocking level of cruelty and a clear violation of the principles we strive to protect in the Bangsamoro,” the UBJP said in a statement.
