2 bodies turn up in Zamboanga villages

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 28, 2010) – The killings never stopped. Two corpses had been found in Zamboanga City in Mindanao where the spate of gun attacks and murders continue to hound the locals the past months.

The bodies had been recovered Tuesday in the villages of Tumaga and San Roque and remain unidentified. One of the corpses had a severed head and both were believed to be victims of extrajudicial killings.

The discovery of the bodies came about the same day local government officials called for a peace and order council meeting to assess the security situation in the villages of Mampang, Arena Blanco and Talon-Talon where most of the spate of attacks had been reported in recent months.

More than two dozen people had been murdered in the three villages in what police claimed was all connected to clan war or vendetta killings. Since early this year, more than 100 people had been shot and many of these cases remain unsolved. Most of the murders were carried out by hired assassins.

One of the suspects in the attacks in Mampang, Nur Abdulsamad, had been arrested in Mindoro province after fleeing Zamboanga to evade criminal charges against him, but many of those accused in the murders are still at-large.

There was also a proposal to declare a state of lawlessness in the villages of Mampang, Arena Blanco and Talon-Talon. Extrajudicial killings in Zamboanga are not uncommon and over the years, dozens of corpses had turned up in remote villages and those unclaimed were buried in common graves. (Mindanao Examiner)

Muslim man abducted in Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 24, 2009) – Four gunmen, believed to be military agents, seized a Muslim villager in the southern Filipino port city of Zamboanga, his family and witnesses said Friday.

The gunmen also threatened a policeman who tried to stop them from taking Maulager Abal near his house in the village of san Roque on Thursday. One witness said the gunmen introduced themselves as police officers and took the 22-year man, who drives a pedicab for living.

“Four men armed with .45-caliber pistols took Abal. They also threatened me and my father as they ordered Abal into the van. Abal’s relatives tried to rescue him, but they too, were threatened by the men,” she said.

Abal's mother said her son was a law-abiding citizen.

Neighbors said they suspect the armed men were military agents, but a regional military commander, Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, denied soldiers were involved in the abduction.

Police released a sketch of one of the suspects based on the testimonies of the witnesses. It had previously linked military agents in the arrest of suspected rebels in Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner)

Photo: Suspected Cellphone Thieves In Zamboanga City

Suspected thieves are being interrogated at a police station in Zamboanga City after they were arrested for stealing a cell phone in a parked car in the village of San Roque. The phone was later recovered. Some of them had been previously involved in snatching incidents in the village and were spotted breaking into the perimeter fench of the Zamboanga International Airport . (Mindanao Examiner Photo)