ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 11, 2012) – Gunmen ambushed Wednesday a truck carrying farm workers in the restive province of Basilan in the southern Philippines and killing at least 6 people and 22 others, officials said.
Officials said among those killed in the attack were 5 farm workers and a pro-government militia in the attack that occurred in the village of Sapah Bulak in the town of Sumisip. The ambushers fled after the attack.
“Military reports said five civilians and a militia were killed and that 19 more civilians and three government militias are also wounded in the attack,” Army Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the Mindanao Examiner.
No individual claimed responsibility for ambush, but Abu Sayyaf militants, extorting money from farm workers, had been blamed by authorities for similar attacks in the past.
“Another day of mourning for the people of Basilan. Another ambush to the workers of Tumahubong Agrarian community. Six killed and many wounded,” said Father Angel Calvo, a peace advocate who heads several nongovernmental organizations in Basilan and Zamboanga City.
Most of the victims are members of the Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Incorporated Development Cooperative.
Late last year, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also ambushed a truck transporting farm workers and killed 5 of them in the same village. Most of the victims were rubber tree tappers of the same cooperative.
And Taha Katu, the cooperative manager, had said the Abu Sayyaf was likely behind that ambush after they ignored extortion demands by the militant group. He said the Abu Sayyaf was demanding P50,000 a month from their cooperative. (Mindanao Examiner)
20