Killings in Zamboanga town continue

ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY – Tension is running high in Tungawan town in Zamboanga Sibugay province following the spate of deadly attacks by gunmen there whose recent victim was the father of a local mayoralty candidate.

Police said 3 motor- cycle gunmen had killed Moin Samson and wounded 2 of his companions in an ambush last week near a bridge in the village of Lower Tungawan. Two other men - Hasim Samson and Rashid Hassan – were both wounded in the attack.

The victims were heading home on a motorcycle when the gunmen, who were tailing the trio, attacked them with automatic pistols. The motive of the attack is still unclear and police would not say if the ambush was politically motivated.

There was no immediate statement from the family of Climaco, but their political allies claimed that many of them were getting death threats from unknown groups.

Climaco was himself wounded in an attack by gunmen in October last year that also killed Randy Climaco, the town’s mayor, and injured 6 others, including Tungawan Vice Mayor Abdurauf Abison and a municipal council member Lovelife Caracol. The group just filed their candidacy for the May national polls when gunmen ambushed them near Batungan village.

Since then, about a dozen people – mostly supporters of the Climacos – were slain in separate gun attacks in Tungawan, and the military would not take action on the spate of killings, saying, it is the duty of the police to secure the town.