2 killed in Maguindanao del Norte gun attack

KORONADAL CITY — Two individuals from South Cotabato province were killed in a gun attack in a remote town in Maguindanao del Norte this weekend in what is widely construed as possibly a result of a narcotics transaction that went awry.

Jerome Labis and Jovino Sepa of Barangay Canary in Polomolok and Barangay Basak in T’boli in South Cotabato province, respectively, were found lifeless with gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies in Barangay Pageda in Talitay, Maguindanao del Norte.

Police Captain Joel Albao, chief of the Talitay municipal police chief, said on Monday that responding investigators found spent shells of .45 caliber pistols and 5.56 M16 rifles scattered in the crime scene.

Personnel of the Talitay Municipal Police Station are still trying to determine who killed Labis and Sepa for prosecution.

The spot where the cadavers of the duo was found is only about five kilometers away from the municipal police station in Talitay.

A number of people from outside of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur had been killed in one mysterious gun attack after another in Talitay in recent months.

Talitay is reportedly included in former President Rodrigo Duterte's list of major shabu transshipment points in Mindanao.