COTABATO CITY , Philippines – Gunmen stabbed and finished off with .45 caliber pistols yesterday an uncle of the vice mayor of Maguindanao’s Ampatuan town – who is a key prosecution witness in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people – at a busy spot in this city, just meters away from the main police station.
Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, city police chief, said bystanders and policemen rushed Mohamad Isah Sangki to a nearby hospital but he was declared dead on arrival.
Sangki, who operated a store that sold exclusive parts of imported big motorcycles and off-road motocross bikes, is the brother of Ampatuan Mayor Zacaria Sangki, whose son, Razul, the town’s vice mayor, is helping prosecutors in the massacre case.
The killing of Mohamad Isah Sangki was preceded by the repeated shelling with 60-mm mortars and 40-mm shoulder-fired grenade projectiles near the village where other members of the Sangki clan reside and a roadside gasoline station owned by Mayor Sangki in the town proper.
Police said the attackers, armed with M-203 rifles fitted with grenade launchers and vintage M-79 which can fire projectiles up to 300 meters, would fire several rounds and then escape toward a nearby hinterland.
Dangane said investigators are convinced that Sangki personally knew his killers.
“He was even talking to them along the street before they killed him,” he said.
Dangane said a witness identified one of the attackers as a certain Kenny Osmeña, a resident of Maguindanao.
“Let’s wait for the outcome of the investigation. Certainly, corresponding criminal cases will be filed against the suspects,” Dangane said.
People near the crime scene helplessly watched the attackers leave the bloodied Sangki so casually and board motorcycles parked nearby.
“They seemed so relaxed, as if they were just touring a park. They escaped using their motorcycles,” a cigarette vendor recounted.
Vice Mayor Razul Sangki has tagged the now detained Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. as the one who led a group of militiamen in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people, including at least 30 media practitioners, in Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town.
The vice mayor’s sister is married to Mayor Bahnarin Ampatuan of Maguindanao’s Mamasapano town, who is also a suspect in the massacre. – With Edith Regalado - By John Unson
