Gun attack kills another local official from Maguindanao
COTABATO CITY – A candidate for municipal councilor in Northern Kabuntalan, Maguindanao del Norte was shot dead in Midsayap, Cotabato province on Saturday.
The victim, Jerry Beltran Dofredo, 46, a former town councilor and former village chair of Barangay Paulino Labio of Northern Kabuntalan, was driving his motorcycle on his way home when men on board another motorbike shot him from behind along the border of Barangays Central Katingawan and San Isidro in Midsayap, according to Police Lt. Col. Realan Mamon, the town police chief.
Dofredo died on the spot from gunshot wounds in the head and body. Police recovered six empty shells for caliber .45 pistol at the site where he was shot.
Dofredo was the seventh village and municipal official–former and incumbent–from the Maguindanao provinces who have been killed since April last year.
All of these killings remained unresolved, with police authorities yet to determine if any of these gun attacks were related to the midterm elections in May.
Barely two weeks before Dofredo was killed, Kameran M. Abubakar, chairperson of Barangay Sambulawan in Datu Salibo town, Maguindanao del Sur, was killed on Jan. 3 by armed men inside his house in the town at 4 p.m., said a report from Police Lt. Victor Lim, chief of the Datu Salibo municipal police station.
Five days earlier, on Dec. 29, 2024, Mandi Salandang, a kagawad (councilman) of Barangay Penditen, also of Datu Salibo town, was also shot dead by gunmen at 4 p.m.
In October last year, village councilman Toto Gogo Kensa, 45, of Barangay Labulabu, Datu Hoffer of Maguindanao del Sur, was killed in an ambush in Datu Hoffer. Kensa was seeking a seat at the town’s municipal council in the coming elections.
On Sept. 19 last year, Councilor Mohammad Usman Alamada, 59, was shot dead by two gunmen in front of his family-owned roadside restaurant in Buluan, Maguindanao del Sur; while on Aug. 2, gunmen ambushed and killed Vice Mayor Roldan Benito of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur.
Benito’s wife, the chairperson of the town’s Barangay Pandan, was wounded but survived.
On April 30 last year, Teduray tribe leader Juanito Promboy, 48, a village council member representing the indigenous people’s community in Barangay Tuayan of Datu Hoffer town, was killed along the dirt road of the village while on his way to Barangay Limpongo.
