Polomolok village chair gunned down

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews) — Police have launched a deeper investigation into the daring killing on Tuesday afternoon of a barangay chair in Polomolok town, South Cotabato province.

Capt. Brandie Rasos, Polomolok police chief, said they are eyeing several angles as possible motive in the murder of Barangay Lapu chairman Abdullah Amponilla Nilong along Miranda Street in Barangay Poblacion at around 1:15 p.m.

It was the second attempt on his life since March 2017.

Rasos said the victim was walking in front of a branch of the Generika Drugstore in the area when he was shot several times by a lone gunman.

Based on accounts from witnesses, an unidentified male suspect wearing a black helmet and jacket reportedly approached and shot Nilong then fled on foot immediately towards an unknown direction.

Recovered at the scene were three fired cartridges of a suspected caliber .45 handgun.

Rasos said concerned residents rushed the victim, who sustained gunshot wounds on the head and body, to the nearby Bontuyan Hospital but was declared dead upon arrival by the attending doctor.

The Nilong family decided to forego with the post-mortem examination on the victim’s body to facilitate the latter’s immediate burial based on Islamic tradition, he said.

Investigators are initially looking at personal and work-related circumstances as among the possible motives of the incident.

“(The) follow-up investigation and pursuit operations are ongoing for the possible identification and arrest of the suspect,” Rasos said.

He said they submitted the recovered slugs to the Police Regional Office-12’s crime laboratory for ballistic and cross-matching examination.

In March 2017, the victim survived a gun attack that resulted to the killing of his nephew, then Barangay Lapu councilor Norman Nilong.

The two were talking in a waiting shed at the boundary of Barangays Lapu and Sulit when two unidentified motorcycle-riding suspects came and shot them.

Abdullah was unhurt after managing to duck but Norman sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was declared dead on arrival in a local hospital. (MindaNews)