Manhunt vs shooters of soldier

COTABATO CITY – Police have launched a manhunt against two men who shot and injured an off-duty soldier in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao on Sunday.

“We believe that the attackers are either guns-forhire or motorcycle thieves preying on motorists in our area,” said Major Julhamin Asdani, Sultan Kudarat municipal police chief, in an interview with reporters here Monday.

Private John Malvic Cagape Pido, 25, of the Army’s

6th Infantry Division based in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, survived assassins’ bullets while heading for home aboard his motorbike to Barangay Capayuran, Pigcawayan, North Cotabato, around 4 p.m. Sunday.

Asdani said two armed men onboard a motorbike tailed the victim and shot him along the stretch of the highway in Barangay Salimbao, Sultan Kudarat.

Pido was hit on the shoulder but managed to drive up to a police outpost along the Delta Bridge in a neighboring village in Cotabato City to seek help.

Elements of the city police mobile company rushed the victim to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center for treatment.

Asdani said he has already sought for additional police forces and the setting up of checkpoints along the national highway in Sultan Kudarat where a spate of shootings has occurred in recent months.

Since May this year, at least six persons were killed, including two aspiring soldiers from nearby Parang, Maguindanao, in separate shooting incidents at the highway in Sultan Kudarat town.