A TOWN mayor from Lanao del Sur, his wife and their driver were injured when they were attacked by two still unidentified assailants in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday morning.
The Cagayan de Oro City police office identified the victims as Mayor Somerado Guro, 60, of Lumbaca Unayan town in Lanao del Sur; his wife Rohaifa Guro, 26, and driver Ibrahim Gami, 58.
Police said the three were aboard a pick-up vehicle travelling in Barangay Iponan at around 9:20 a.m. when two motorcycle-riding gunmen appeared and opened fire at them.
Though injured, the driver was able to drive the vehicle to the nearby Polymedic Plaza Hospital, police said.
A fourth occupant of the vehicle, Abdul Rafi Guro, a staff of the mayor, was unscathed.
The Cotabato City police office is conducting a “thorough investigation and hot operations to give justice to the victims.”
In South Cotabato, a witness in the Maguindanao massacre case was shot and wounded by an unidentified suspect in Tantangan town also yesterday.
Police said the witness, Menito Siyal, was aboard a Toyota Innova van when the suspect aboard a Mitsubishi Montero sports utility shot him and his companions around 10:10 a.m. long a national highway in Purok Maligaya, Barangay Pait.
Siyal’s driver, Richard Escovilla, died upon arrival at a hospital while another companion, identified as Rey Fritch Pontanoza, was also injured.
The victims were coming from Tacurong City, police said.
Siyal is under the under the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program in connection with the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre case that left 58 people dead, many of them media men.
A Quezon City court handed down a verdict on the case in November last year. Four members of the Ampatuan clan, including brothers Datu Andal Jr and Zaldy, were among those found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
At least 80 other accused, including policemen, are still at large. The PNP leadership has ordered manhunt operations for their arrest.
