Another "Maguindanao massacre" witness survives ambush

COTABATO CITY ---- Another state witness in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre survived an ambush in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao Tuesday.

The incident came just three months after the vice mayor of the same municipality was seriously wounded in a seemingly identical attack.

Muhammad Sangki and four companions were together in a van that gunmen shot with assault rifles while its driver was maneuvering through a stretch of a thoroughfare in Shariff Aguak.

The scene of the ambush is not too distant from the location of the adjoining Maguindanao provincial hospital and the provincial police office.

The 56-year-old Sangki was one of the witnesses who helped prosecute the masterminds in the gruesome politically-motivated murder of 58 people together in nearby Ampatuan town on November 23, 2009, touted as the country’s worst election-related violence ever.

Sangki and his companions survived the attack unscathed.

The incident was preceded by the ambush last December of Shariff Aguak Vice Mayor Akmad Ampatuan.

Ampatuan also testified against the culprits in the infamous Maguindanao massacre, among them his relatives.

Ampatuan and two companions were also together in a car when gunmen positioned along a highway at the town proper of Shariff Aguak opened fire with assault rifles.

The vice mayor survived the attack with bullet wounds in the arm but his two companions were not as lucky.