Driver of Cotabato lawmaker shot dead

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- An unidentified gunman shot dead a staff of a in North Cotabato representative while he was inside their residential compound on Quezon Blvd. here, around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Superintendent Renante Cabico, city police director, identified the victim as Jose Duerme Labrador, one of the drivers of Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco (2nd district).

Cabico said the victim was sitting outside his house when a gunman, clad in black sweatshirt and wore a black bull cap, shot him twice on the head.

After making sure his target was dead, the suspect fled towards the highway in nearby Makilala town, also in North Cotabato, on board a motorcycle without a plate number. The suspect also wore a crash helmet.

Police recovered from the crime scene two slugs of .45 calibre pistol, which they believed was used to kill the victim.

Cabico hinted personal grudge as the motive in the killing.

Cabico said that hours before the killing, the victim's daughter filed a complaint of violence against women and children (VAWC) against her live-in partner at the police station.

The investigators, however, have yet to determine if the filing of a VAWC complaint and the killing are linked.

Cabico has sought the victim's immediate family to help them identify and hunt down the suspects.

"I know they have knowledge on the killing, yet, at this time, they are still not talking to us. We hope they give us the needed information for the early resolution of the case," said Cabico.

Also, the police will have the security guard of a store nearby investigated regarding the incident.

"The guard probably has information on the killing. Hours before the incident, the suspects were seen waiting just few meters away from the store where the security guard was assigned. Yet, when my investigators asked him on some important things, he told them he doesn't know anything about it," Cabico said.