Police, military assure they are in control of Zambo Sur town’s peace and order

Police and military officials of Zzmboanga del Sur

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Dec. 23 (PNA) -– Police and military authorities have assured the residents of the nearby town of Labangan that they are in control of the situation in the area.

The assurance were made by provincial police director Senior Supt. Sofronio Ecaldre and Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Victor Tanggawohn as tension has gone high after the death of the town mayor of Labangan.

The tension was brought about by the attack of unidentified gunmen around 10 p.m. Friday on the residence of former Mayor Wilson Nandang in Barangay Dalapang, Labangan town.

The attack took place almost 12 hours after Labangan Mayor Ukol Talumpa, his wife, Lea, and two other relatives--Salipudin Talumpa and 18-month-old Philip Thomas Estueta--were killed by motorcycle-riding unidentified gunmen as they stepped out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (NAIA) Terminal 3.

No one was either killed or injured in the attack at the residence of Nandang as well as on the attackers since the house caretakers managed to return fire.

Nandang was not around during the incident since he and his family have left the municipality of Labangan after he lost to Talumpa in the mayoralty race last May. 

Ecaldre has deployed the Provincial Public Safety Battalion (PPSB) headed by Supt. Michael Palermo to Labangan to assist the town policemen in maintaining law and order in the place.

Ecaldre also ordered Palermo to spearhead the conduct of the investigation over the incident. 

Tanggawohn has also assigned soldiers to augment the police forces in Labangan town to assure public safety in the area.

Except for Estueta who was buried in Manila, the Talumpas were buried Saturday morning at a family owned cemetery in Barangay Lower Sang-an, Labangan, following the Muslim rites. (PNA)
LAP/TPGJR/HIROHITO D. CADION/UTB