ILIGAN CITY--Five members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were killed while two others were wounded in an ambush by still unidentified perpetrators in the Lanao del Sur town of Kapai.
Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, director of the Police Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-ARMM), said the ambush took place along the national highway in Barangay Malna, Kapai town, around 12 noon.
Mijares said the victims were on board a Toyota van and were heading home to Marawi City from a drug symposium for drug surrenderers in the Lanao del Sur town of Tagoloan II when waylaid.
Senior Superintendent Ronald Briones, Lanao del Sur police provincial director, identified four of the five casualties as PDEA agents Kenneth Tabulo, Kristine Mae Torlao, Lores Joy Amar, and Binzo Dipolla. They were declared dead on arrival by attending physicians at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City.
Another casualty, Diobel Pacinio, died while undergoing treatment at the hospital, Briones said.
Briones said the policemen who escorted the victims were able to return fire.
Mijares said pursuit operations are still ongoing against the perpetrators. (Noel Punzalan and Divina Suson/PNA)
