Authorities have tightened security across Maguindanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) after three separate shootings over the weekend left three people dead and three others injured.
The latest incident happened around 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, when a rescue vehicle carrying three members of the Barangay Peace Action Team was ambushed while on their way to respond to a flooded area.
One member was killed, and the other two were wounded in the attack along the national highway.
“This violence occurred while the election gun ban remains in effect,” provincial police director Col. Bobby Ryan Paloma said in a statement Monday.
On Saturday, 50-year-old Lakmudin Uga was killed and his wife wounded in an attack in Pandag town. Just hours later, his nephew Allan Uga, a retired soldier, was also fatally shot in nearby Buluan.
Police are investigating possible links between the incidents in Pandag and Buluan. All the victims were targeted by motorcycle-riding gunmen, who remain at large.