NorCot peace advocate gunned down

COTABATO CITY – A village treasurer known for his staunch support for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) was shot dead in Midsayap, North Cotabato by still unidentified armed men on Wednesday.

The Midsayap town police station named the fatality as Ahmad Kumayog, 43, treasurer of Barangay Mudsing and an active peace advocate working for the BOL ratification.

Kumayog was driving his motorcycle home in Barangay Mudsing at past 1 p.m. Wednesday when one of two armed men on separate motorbikes fired at him along the highway of nearby barangay Glad, according to Supt. Joan Maganto, Midsayap town police chief,

Residents rushed the victim, also a chair of the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD) in his village, to a nearby hospital where physicians declared him dead on arrival.

Kumayog was also a member of the North Cotabato Composite Team of Civil Society Organizations (NCCT-CSO), a group responsible for the filing before the Commission on Election petitions from 43 barangay councils in the province seeking inclusion in the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the BOL.

The BOL is an enabling law of two major peace accords signed by the government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2013 and 2014.

NCCT-CSO Chairman Taher Solaiman called on police and other authorities to track down the attackers of Kumayog and bring them to the bar of justice.