MARINE SERGEANT, HIRED GUN KILLED IN COTABATO ATTACKS

COTABATO CITY: Two men riding a motorcycle shot dead in broad daylight a Marine sergeant and wounded another in an ambush along a busy thoroughfare here while a man suspected of being a gun-for-hire member was shot dead after he attacked the security officer of the Regional Legislative Assembly-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RLA-ARMM) on Friday. The city Police Office identified the slain victim as Sgt. Ferdinand Ulang and his wounded companion Sgt. Arnel Navarro. The soldiers were riding a motorcycle en route to the downtown area here when the suspects who were tailing them opened fire with caliber .45 pistols. Ulang died on the spot while Navarro sustained bullet wounds and now confined in a hospital in the city. They both belong to the 7th Marine Battalion based in nearby North Upi town in Maguindanao. About two hours later, a team of Marines dispatched to the ambush site gunned down a man suspected to be a hired gun identified only as “Mohammad” after he attacked Alfredo Tumbaga, an RLA-ARMM security officer.

KOREAN RESTAURANT MANAGER SLAIN

A KOREAN restaurant manager was shot dead by gunman backriding in a motorcycle in Barangay Banilad of Mandaue City, Cebu on Friday night. Police said Sang Ho Lee, manager of Gaano Restaurant in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City was driving his black Toyota Innova ( YKK 437) at about 9 p.m. that upon reaching A.S. Fortuna Street the assailants who were tailing the victim’s car fired shots at him. Senior Supt. Roberto Alanas, Mandaue City Police Office director, said the gunman fired six shots at close range on Lee’s car. Lee died from multiple gunshot wounds in the body. Police recovered five empty shells and three slugs of an unknown firearm from the scene. Alanas told they are looking at business-related and personal grudge as the possible motives in Lee’s murder carried out by a professional hitman.

22 GRENADES RECOVERED IN BULACAN

TWENTY- TWO grenades were recovered and turned over to the Philippine Army in Norzagay, Bulacan Friday morning, according to the Jouint Task Force Kaugnay. It said that a certain Rene Alcaraz surrendered 21 fragmentary grenades and a smoke grenade to the commander of Suha Patrol Base under the 70th Infantry Battalion. The fragmentation grenades were accidentally discovered during an excavation on a lot owned by a certain Juan Bernardo last 2005.