Stray bullet kills CSC exec in Marawi
COTABATO CITY – A stray bullet killed the assistant regional director of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) while on official travel in Marawi City on Thursday, authorities said.
CSC-ARMM Assistant Director Marvin Ablando, 45, succumbed to a bullet wound in the head, according to a report attributed to police regional director Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac.
The fatality’s immediate superior, CSC-ARMM Director Sandra Ar-
nica Uzman, 43, who was with him in the trip, suffered a slight wound in the forehead, Sindac said.
Ablando and Uzman were on their way from the Mindanao State University main campus to the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol complex in Marawi City when a stray bullet hit their vehicle last Thursday.
The driver of the two CSC officials, whose identity was not available, told responding authorities that he “heard a burst of gunfire before a bullet hit the windshield,” Army Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said.
Ablando and Uzman were taken to Marawi City’s Amai Pakpak Medical Center where attending physicians declared the former dead on arrival, police and military officials said. The body of Ablando taken to this city where the CSC-ARMM regional office is based, Petinglay said.
While initial assessment was that the victims were hit by stray bullet, Petinglay said authorities are investigating if the victims were directly fired upon.
Since the fighting between government forces and Islamist militants broke out last May 23, several instances of stray bullets hitting the compound of the provincial government in Marawi City have been reported by occupants and visitors.
A foreign news reporter was wounded in the nape by a stray bullet last July while on media coverage at the capitol complex where the Provincial Crisis Management Committee maintains an operation nerve center.
The provincial capitol complex is about one and a half kilometers from the headquarters of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade. MSU still safe Despite the death of the CSC official, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the MSU and the surrounding vicinity are still safe despite.
AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla confirmed Friday morning that a “member of a government agency” was hit by a stray bullet in the area.
He also assured during the Mindanao Hour/Bangon Marawi press briefing that Task Force Group Ranao is working doubly hard to ensure the safety of some specific roadways.
“The gate of MSU where this incident occurred has been closed and traffic along that thoroughfare has been rerouted to safer areas as a result of this development,” Padilla said.
“Task Force Group Ranao has beefed up its forces in the area, especially around MSU, and will provide additional men to ensure the safety of our motorists and our residents in those particular areas that figured in the incident yesterday [Thursday]," he added.
Padilla said that classes in private schools near the area are now suspended until such time that we can guarantee or ensure that no incident of this nature will happen again.
He, however, said that classes and normalcy inside the MSU community remains because they are well secured in that area.
“The MSU, by the way, remains unscathed because it was not part of the attack that was made by the terrorists or the rebels earlier on in the last few months,” Padilla said.
“However, there have been a lot of cases of stray bullets getting in that direction, even if it is a number of kilometers away. I think it’s about two, if I’m not mistaken, or more,” he added.
He attributed the recent stray bullet incident to the proliferation of different calibers of firearms in the area and to some possible Maute Group sympathizers.
“It cannot be farfetched also that there may be some elements who are sympathetic of the group, who have arms with them, who may have made it close to these areas and may have attempted to shoot at vehicles or innocent persons who are in the area,” Padilla said.
The military official advised members of the MSU community to keep away from the side of the compound where the incident happened.
“MSU is still secured by some of our forces. There are forces that are detailed there to conduct checkpoints and to ensure that no groups will be able to penetrate from a safe distance,” Padilla assured.
Who’s accountable?
Meanwhile, Padilla said that former Marawi City mayor Omar Solitario should be held accountable for the loss of lives in Marawi City, saying the latter instigated the whole thing.
He said this after reports surfaced that Solitario sought a negotiation with Peace Process Adviser Jesus Dureza.
“Solitario should not be taken seriously because he supports the bandits in Marawi,” Padilla said. “We should pursue his arrest because he is one of the people who instigated this whole thing.”