Cop killed, companions hurt in South Cotabato attack
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 21:30 PM Fri Mar 5, 2021
1
By:
John M. Unson
Probers are still clueless on Friday's ambush incident in Tupi, South Cotabato. (From netizen Brian Catalino Bade)
COTABATO CITY --- A policeman was killed while two others were wounded in an ambush in Barangay Pulonuling in Tupi, South Cotabato on Friday morning.
The fatality, Police Sgt. Reynante Espero, died on the spot while his companions, Sergeants Jorex Velasco and Jerome Silvederio, sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies.
The three policemen were riding a car together that gunmen trailing behind on another vehicle shot with pistols while motoring through a stretch of the Koronadal-General Santos Highway that straddles through pineapple plantations in Barangay Pulonuling far from houses.
The wounded Velasco and Silvederio were immediately rushed to a hospital by responding barangay officials and civilian community defense volunteers.
The attack was preceded by Thursday’s fatal shooting of another policeman, Corporal Nasrudin Bansuan, inside a restaurant in Gen. Santos City, about 40 kilometers away.
Bansuan’s killer casually walked out of the establishment after killing him instantly with two pistol shots to the head.
In an initial statement Friday, the Police Regional Office-12 said the South Cotabato provincial police and the Tupi municipal police shall cooperate in putting closure to Friday morning’s ambush in Barangay Pulonuling.