Lanao del Sur Governor Offers Reward for Information on Firefighters' Ambushers

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The governor of Lanao del Sur has offered a cash incentive for any information leading to the arrest of the gunmen behind the ambush in the province on Wednesday, July 8, of Bureau of Fire Protection personnel that left one of them dead and hurt three others. The ambush fatality, Fire Officer 1 Abdul Hamid Dimaren, and his companions were together in a black Toyota Hilux pick-truck, on their way to Malabang town in Lanao del Sur, when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway in Barangay Bubongaranao in Calanogas. Capt. Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and Col. Caesar Cabuhat, director of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, separately told reporters that Dimaren and his companions were returning to Malabang then, from Lanao del Sur’s Masiu town, when they were waylaid, killing him instantly. The attack left Dimaren’s three companions, Senior Fire Officer 2 Margie Ventura, Fire Officer 2 Hanin Balindong and the retired Fire Senior Inspector Maximino Ventura, wounded. Their attackers immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles, according to local executives in Calanogas. “I will provide with an earnest incentive any informant who can help officials of the Calanogas Municipal Police Station identify the persons who perpetrated that atrocity,” said Adiong, who, as governor, is chairperson of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council. Salanguit and Cabuhat had separately told reporters that Adiong, local executives in Calanogas and traditional Maranao community leaders in the municipality are helping them put a closure to the incident that caused panic among residents in Barangay Bubongaranao.