Police clueless on Cotabato family massacre
CARMEN, North Cotabato – Police investigators continued to face a blank wall on the motive for the killing of five persons in the massacre of the Agal family Monday in Barangay Ugalingan here.
Chief Insp. Julius R. Malcontento, Carmen town police chief, has called on possible witnesses who may have knowledge of the carnage which also wounded two other family members after the raid of unidentified armed men in their home.
Killed were Ibrahim Agal, 50, his children Muhammad, 18, and Sarah, 9; and nephews Pama, 10, and Mustafa, 12. Wounded were Nashrudin, 9; and Jerry, 42, all surnamed Agal.
Police and barangay officials remained clueless as to the motive for the crime, specially so because the Agals were described as “poor but peaceful people any record of having had any enemies.”
The Agals had recently relocated from Barangay Kayaga off Kabana and Ugalingan towns.
An on-site inspection showed the brutality by which the Agals were mowed down with indiscriminate gunfire.
Their residence had numerous bullet holes, indicating that the attackers surrounded the house before firing.
It was also learned that the three family members who survived the attack – Ibrahim’s wife Anida, their three-year old grandson Muhajid and father Liposin, 73 – were able to hide under the beds and played dead when the attackers came into the house to check on survivors.
Barangay Kayaga chairman Bong Bacana took exception to an earlier report that the victims were involved in a rido or family feud that might have triggered the attack.
Bacana said there was no indication that the Muslim family could have been entangled in any rift with any family in their current village or in Barangay Kagaya.
Relatives buried the slain victims’ bodies Tuesday afternoon at barangay Kayaga under Islamic rites. They refused to face the media.
But some neighbors said the family was worried about a possible“whitewash” in the investigation of the incident, citing other massacre case in this town which also involved ethnic Muslim residents.
They alleged that, in those cases, armed men belonging to Visayan vigilante group were suspected of being involved in the massacre.
Malcotento assured that no whitewash would happen in their investigation as long as witnesses will cooperate with their testimonies.
Police probers were already considering the surviving members of the Agal family to serve as principal witnesses who could help unveil the mystery behind Monday’s incident.