Sultan Kudarat mayor, councilor survive attack

SULTAN KURADARAT -- Military and police units have been mobilized to hunt down two men who hurled grenades at the house of Mayor Ramon Abalos of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, and at the compound of the local police office on Saturday morning, July 28.

Lambayong Councilor Carlos Abalos and his cousin, Richard Abalos, town public supervisor, sustained minor injuries following the grenade attack inside the residential compound of Mayor Abalos at around 6:45 a.m.

The victims were immediately brought to a hospital in Tacurong City, some five kilometers from Lambayong.

Minutes after the explosion at the mayor’s home in Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Poblacion, the same attackers on a motorbike tossed another hand grenade at the compound of the Lambayong municipal police office.

Nobody was hurt in the attack.

The Abaloses were having coffee at the mayor’s residential compound when bonnetwearing suspects zipped by and lobbed the hand grenade that landed beside the mayor’s vehicle. The suspects then fled on a motorbike toward the police station and tossed the second fragmentation grenade.

Mayor Abalos said he believes the grenade attack was perpetrated by personalities involved in illegal drugs, attributing the incident to his all-out campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs in town.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6ID) commander and Chief

Marcelo Morales, police director for Region 12, said they have already directed their respective filed units to help hunt down the suspects who could be members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

“The Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the Tacurong area has been ordered to coordinate with the police to run after the attackers,” said Capt. Arvin John Encinas, 6ID spokesperson.

Lambayong town is adjacent to Maguindanao province where the BIFF operates.