Lanao del Sur bet killed in ambush – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed a candidate for councilor and his sibling, who is an incumbent barangay chairman, while on their way to a polling site in Bayang, Lanao del Sur on Monday morning.
The fatalities, Afganie Balt Taha, aspiring for a seat in the municipal council of Bayang, and his brother, Walid, chairman of Barangay Sumbag in the municipality, are from a big Maranao clan that has elders who are locked in deep-seated political animosity with other politicians in Lanao del Sur.
Officials of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters that the victims were on their way to a pooling precinct at the Mauyag Papandayan National High School in Barangay Rinabor in Bayang when they were attacked by gunmen positioned along the route.
They were both declared dead on arrival at a hospital where they were brought for treatment.
Relatives of the Taha siblings had told reporters that they are certain that the atrocity was perpetrated by political adversaries. — John Felix M. Unson
