Barangay watchman, CAFGU member killed in BARMM gun attacks

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A team leader of volunteer community watchmen and a member of a state paramilitary unit were killed in two ambush incidents on Friday in Basilan and in Maguindanao del Norte provinces, both in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Lt. Col. Arlan Delumpines, police chief of Lamitan City in Basilan, told reporters on Saturday that Angelito Recanel Seblero, 54, died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Delumpines said Seblero was a leader of the Civilian Volunteer Organization in Barangay Maloong in Lamitan City, who was supportive of the peacekeeping missions of the police and military in villages covered by the CVO team that he led.

Seblero was driving his tricycle, on his way home from somewhere, when he was shot by gunmen positioned along a stretch of the highway in Sitio Samson in Barangay Maloong San Jose in Lamitan City, killing him on the spot.

His attackers managed to escape before responding barangay tanods and personnel of the Lamitan CPS could reach the scene.

The fatal ambush of Seblero in Lamitan City preceded the gun attack, at about 7:00 p.m. Friday, in Barangay Semba in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte that resulted in the death of the ethnic Maguindanao Bhoong Gampong, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit under the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, said on Saturday morning that Gampong was riding his motorcycle when he was ambushed in Barangay Semba by gunmen who waited for him along the route.

Madin said Gampong, who sustained four bullet wounds in the upper torso, died at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center before midnight Friday.

Probers from the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station are facing a blankwall on who could have killed Gampong, all at large.