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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese