By Edwin Fernandez and John Andrew Tabugoc
MATALAM, North Cotabato – Police are searching for two gunmen who ambushed and killed a local government employee on Sunday.
Lt. James Warren Caang, spokesperson for the Cotabato Police Provincial Office, identified the victim as Joseph Ferdinand Gimenez, a regular municipal government employee and resident of Barangay Poblacion.
“An investigation is underway to determine the motive and the identity of the perpetrators,” Caang said, adding that investigators are scheduled to meet with the family to gather information significant for resolving the crime.
Based on the initial investigation, Gimenez was driving a government pick-up truck when the unidentified riding-in-tandem on a motorbike tailed and opened fire at him on Sunday morning along the section of the national highway here.
Police recovered 14 slugs and empty bullets for a .45-caliber p[pistol at the crime scene.
The incident was the first shooting here since the implementation of the election gun ban, along with intensified police visibility and checkpoints.
Meanwhile, police authorities are also hunting down a former police inmate who tossed a grenade at a police patrol car last Feb. 21 in Kabacan town in this province.
Caang said the suspect, whom he declined to identify pending a police operation, was arrested earlier for illegal possession of firearms but was out after posting a bail bond.
“He was mad because he was arrested for gun possession, and he wanted to get back at any police officer,” Caang said of the 10:00 p.m. grenade attack in Barangay Osias, Kabacan.
Caang said police officers manning a checkpoint in the village flagged down two men acting suspiciously while riding a motorcycle. However, the men sped off, forcing the police to chase them.
“The two, however, managed to escape using the darkness of the night as cover,” he said.
As the police officers were returning to their parked patrol car, a suspect tossed the hand grenade under it, which went off, damaging the patrol vehicle.
No police officer was wounded in the incident. (PNA)
