Reelectionist barangay chairman, brother killed in Zambo attack, cops arrest suspect
TIMRA Reports • 14:45 PM Mon Sep 4, 2023
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By:
John Felix Unson
Relatives of the victims are certain the atrocity is related to the forthcoming barangay elections. (From Amier Estimo)
COTABATO CITY --- A Tausug barangay chairman aspiring for a third term and his brother were killed while two others were hurt in a daring attack in Zamboanga City at about dusk Sunday.
Col. Alexander Lorenzo, Zamboanga City police director, on Monday said Jul-Asmad Mawajil Anjawang, a reelectionist chairman of Barangay Pamansaan in Mabuhay, Zamboanga Sibugay, and his brother, Jamar Mawajil Anjawang, both succumbed to bullet wounds in a hospital where emergency responders rushed them for treatment.
A police report from Zamboanga City PNP said: "That at around 1:00 AM of September 4, 2023, the PRO9 personnel led by PCOL ROMEO A ESPERO JR., Deputy Regional Director for Operations (DRDO) together with COL ALEXANDER A LORENZO, City Director and personnel of ZCPS11 led by PMAJ ALBIN T CABAYACRUZ, Acting Station Commander, CIDMU, and RID9 personnel conducted follow-up operation at Comet Street, Barangay Tumaga, this city, that resulted to the arrest of one of the suspects, who is a 37 years old, male, married, and a resident of Comet Street, Barangay Tumaga.
The arrested person was brought to ZCPS-11 for booking and proper disposition and eventually, to undergo a Paraffin Examination.
The confiscated firearm from the suspect shall be submitted to RFU for ballistics examination as well as the mobile phone of the latter will also be forwarded for Digital Forensic Examination.
The suspect is presently detained at ZCPS11 custodial facility pending filing of appropriate charges in court."
Companions of the slain Anjawangs had told responding police probers that the duo had just alighted from their black Toyota Hilux pick-up truck (ABS-7118) to buy food at a roadside vending stall in Barangay Gusu, Zamboanga City that they were to bring home to Mabuhay town when men in a car trailing behind shot them with pistols as they got close and sped away.
Two of their relatives who were to travel with them back to Mabuhay from a wedding rite in Zamboanga City, the siblings Ibrahim Habibula Nasta and Haibir Habibula Nasta, were both hurt in the attack, now confined in a hospital.
Major Albin Cabayacruz, chief of the Zamboanga City Police Precint 11, told reporters they are validating assertions by relatives of the Anjawangs that the culprits are related to a candidate for barangay chairman in Pamansaan, who was to contest the reelection bid of the slain official.
Pamansaan is a small barangay in Mabuhay with mixed Muslim and Christian residents, locked in deadly clan wars involving Tausug settlers.
Gunmen killed on February 25, 2021 Mabuhay Vice Mayor Resituto Calonge and a companion, Engineer Edgar Pampanga, just outside of their local government building in the center of the municipality.
