COTABATO CITY – A prosecutor in Maguindanao and two companions believed to be security escorts were wounded in an ambush Friday in this city, the latest in a spate of ambushcades victimizing personalities serving the province.
Tucod Ronda, deputy provincial prosecutor of Maguindanao, sustained minor wounds but his two unnamed companions were battling for their lives in a hospital.
Ronda, alongside his companions, had just left his house here aboard a Toyota Grandia van when at least three men fired at his vehicle with .45 cal. pistols and M-16 assault rifles at the corner of Kalaw St. in Ferderville Subdivision in Barangay Rosary Heights 11 at around 1:45 p.m.
The armed men tried to open Ronda’s van to finish off all occupants but were forced to flee aboard a white Toyota Innova wagon when a policeman-neighbor fired warning shots, Police Capt. Rustum Pastolero, chief of Cotabato City Police Station 2, said in an initial report.
The responding policeman-neighbor drove the victims to the hospital, it was learned.
City police probers are still investigating Ronda’s ambush, the latest in a spate of ambuscades on officials serving Maguindanao.
Last Jan. 10, motorcycle-riding assassins ambushed the car of Guiara Bagundang-Akmad, 55, senior auditor of the Commission on Audit in Maguindanao, killing her on the spot. (Ali Macabalang)
