3 killed, 5 wounded in Zamboanga ambush

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 21, 2009) – Three people were killed and five others wounded after unidentified motorcycle gunmen ambushed their truck Thursday on a village in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said the attack occurred shortly before 3 p.m. in the village of Victoria, east of Zamboanga City. “Three people were killed instantly and five others are wounded in the attack,” said Nonoy Revillas, the village chieftain.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the ambush, but one of the wounded, Al Asid Alpito, said the attackers opened fire on their truck. “We were shot with an Armalite (rifle). We don’t know the two men, they just opened fire on our truck,” he told reporters from his hospital bed.

Officials said the motive of the attack was unknown, but previous attacks on civilians in Zamboanga City had been largely blamed to the Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.

In February, government troops clashed with some 100 suspected Moro rebels in the village of Curuan after soldiers foiled an attack at an army detachment in the area.

In January, suspected Moro gunmen also abducted and killed four civilians. One villager was also wounded, but managed to escape from the attackers. The Abu Sayyaf also bombed several civilian targets in Zamboanga City in previous years. (Mindanao Examiner)

Zamboanga Highway Collapses, Hundreds Of Commuters Stranded

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 29, 2008) – Hundreds of commuters were stranded in Zamboanga City after a portion of a highway collapsed Tuesday.

“The road is now closed and we are working on a diversion road to allow motorists to pass,” said Mayor Celso Lobregat, who inspected the site in the hillside village of Victoria.

Villagers blamed torrential rains the past months to the erosion of the soil that led to the collapse of the concrete road. There were no reports of accidents, but thousands of commuters had been stranded in Zamboanga City because provincial buses cannot pass the road.

About 100 meters of the highway was destroyed after soil beneath the road collapsed about four feet below. Surprisingly, the broken concrete slabs had no steel supports.

Last month, a pregnant mother and her child were killed after a landslide buried a house on the hillside village of Maasin also in Zamboanga City. Heavy rains triggered by typhoon Fengshen had loosened soil that buried the house. (Mindanao Examiner)