Litigation of Cotabato official’s case outside Central Mindanao sought

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) urged Malacañang to entrust the litigation of a local leader’s ambush case to courts outside Central Mindanao due to security threats.

Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema was on his way home from a council session when two men riding tandem on a motorcycle overtook his vehicle and, as they got close, opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle fitted with a noise suppressor.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Sema, known for his monicker "peacemaker" among supporters and friends, chairs one of the three factions of the MNLF.

MNLF spokesperson Abdul Sahrin said there are provisions in the September 2, 1996 final peace accord with the National Government binding the MNLF and Malacañang to help each other peacefully address peace and security issues in Mindanao.

"This attempt to murder our chairman is a good chance for both sides to cooperate in resolving the case to ensure that the culprits lands in jail," Sahrin said.

Sema was wounded in the right jaw and hospitalized in Davao City for six days. He is now back in Cotabato City, working out an airtight case against the masterminds of the attempt on his life. Sema has 10 volunteer lawyers from Metro Manila helping him.

The Organization of Islamic Conference, which helped in the crafting of the government-MNLF peace agreement, earlier condemned the ambush of the Cotabato City vice mayor. The group also urged Philippine security authorities to expedite the resolution of the case.

One of Sema's attackers, Zermin Abdullah, was a civil service permanent itemized staffer of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).

Armm Governor Mujiv Hataman ordered the regional director of the Armm police, Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, to help identify the link between Abdullah and those that hired him to ambush the local official.

Abdullah, reportedly a hired killer, was rumored to have pulled off the murder of seven people in Cotabato City, including the murder in late 2008 of Edwin Sero, chairman of the Barangay Rosary Heights 5 in Cotabato City. The chairman now of the same barangay is Abdullah's brother-in-law. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)