Gunmen yesterday killed a politician in the same southern Philippine province where 57 people were murdered in an election-linked massacre last year, police said. Joseph Kwan Datuwata, 42, was ambushed as he and his two young children were leaving their home in Cotabato city in a pick-up truck, local policeman Senior Inspector Wally Kasuyo said.
Datuwata, a local businessman who was running for a seat on the Cotabato city council in the May national elections, briefly pursued his attackers and exchanged gunfire with them, before dying, Kasuyo told reporters.
Cotabato is in Maguindanao province and just 20km from the site of the massacre in November last year that saw gunmen allegedly loyal to another local politician shoot dead 57 people.
All of Maguindanao province remains under a state of emergency following the massacre, with extra security forces deployed there in an effort to prevent any more violence.
But Kasuyo said police were not capable of stopping all incidents ahead of the elections.
“The police cannot be everywhere,” Kasuyo said.
Across the Philippines, elections are always marred by violence with politicians infamous for using gunmen to eliminate rivals and intimidate voters.
At least 121 people were killed in the lead up to the 2007 congressional elections, national police statistics showed, slightly lower than the 148 who died in the 2004 national elections. Including yesterday’s death, at least 63 people have so far been murdered in politically related violence ahead of this year’s elections.
Datuwata planned to run under the slate of independent mayoral candidate Zeny Dilangalen, whose family has ties to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo’s ruling coalition.
The Dilangalens are also related by marriage to the two rival Muslim clans involved in the Nov. 23 massacre.
Local politician Andal Ampatuan Junior is charged with murder over that massacre, which he allegedly orchestrated to stop Esmael Mangudadatu from running against him for the post of Maguindanao governor.
Meanwhile, police shot dead eight armed men after they tried to burst through a checkpoint southeast of Manila yesterday, authorities said.
“Eight armed men riding in a van did not yield at a [police] checkpoint and rammed it. After that, the police manning the checkpoint opened fire,” provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Elmo Sarona said.
Four handguns, a rifle and a grenade were recovered from the gunmen’s vehicle following the incident in Candelaria town, 80km southeast of Manila, Sarona said.
The gunmen also shot at police, but no officers were injured, Sarona said.
Police are checking to see if the armed men were part of a robbery gang, Sarona said.
Street violence is a particularly acute problem in the Philippines, where more than 1 million unlicensed firearms are believed to be floating among a population of 93 million people, police statistics showed.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS