Son of barangay chairman killed, 3 hurt in North Cotabato ambush

NORTH COTABATO ---- A son of a barangay chairman was killed while three others were badly hurt in an ambush in Pikit town on Monday morning.Superintendent Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Police Regional Office-12, identified the fatality as Ranulfo Bautista, who succumbed to bullet wounds sustained in the attack.Bautista was driving a Kia Bonggo light truck carrying his father, Santos, who is chairman of Barangay Takepan in Pikit, North Cotabato, and two others, Roberto Midsapak and Robin Salvador, when they were attacked by gunmen on motorcycles.They were on their way home to Barangay Takepan from a mass oath-taking rite for all of Pikit’s elected Sangguniang Kabataan members in a public gymnasium in the municipal center when gunmen riding separate motorcycles overtook and opened fire with pistols.The older Bautista, Midsapak and Salvador, who are both members of the Takepan barangay council, sustained bullet wounds in different parts of their bodies.All three of them are now confined in a hospital, guarded by personnel of the Pikit municipal police.Gonzalez said probers are still trying to identify the culprits and their motive for the ambush.