COTABATO CITY — A Teduray tribal chieftain was killed while his companion was wounded in an ambush on Monday afternoon in Barangay Tuayan in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao del Sur.
Members of the Teduray tribal council in the municipality and the director of the Maguindanao del Sur provincial police, Col. Roel R. Sermese, told reporters on Tuesday morning that the target of the attack, Juanito M. Pamboy, who succumbed to multiple bullet wounds.
Mr. Pamboy, an Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative to the Tuayan barangay government, was a known supporter of peacebuilding programs of local officials in Datu Hoffer, home to mixed Moro and ethnic Teduray communities.
Mr. Pamboy and his companion, Mr. Ronald Angit, also a Teduray, were riding a motorcycle when the gunmen opened fire at them along a farm-to-market road in Barangay Tuayan.
Mr. Angit was injured and is now confined at the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Hospital in nearby Shariff Aguak town.
Local officials said Mr. Pamboy was popular for his role in settling land disputes in their ancestral domains in Datu Hoffer and in nearby towns in Maguindanao del Sur. — John Felix M. Unson
