Off-duty soldier killed in Zamboanga del Sur ambush

COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed an off-duty motorcycle-riding soldier in an ambush in Barangay Tina in Dumalinao town, Zamboanga del Sur on Saturday, September 8.

Officials of the Dumalinao Municipal Police Station and the Police Regional Office-9 separately confirmed on Monday the incident that resulted in the death of Private First Class Mark Leo Capute of the Army’s 44th Infantry Battalion under the 1st Infantry Division covering Pagadian City and the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay.

Local officials and investigators in the Dumalinao police force told reporters that Capute was riding a motorcycle when he was ambushed at a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Tina, a secluded area in the municipality.

The ambushers immediately escaped after Capute fell from his motorcycle, according to barangay officials.

Capute’s killers fled without divesting him of his service pistol and other valuables, something that baffled investigators and Dumalinao local government officials now cooperating in putting a closure to what is for them a premeditated atrocity.