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John Unson - Philstar.com
January 17, 2026 | 6:33pm
The slain barangay chairman and his relative, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, were riding a motorcycle together when they were attacked by gunmen in a secluded stretch of a highway in Arakan, Cotabato.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed a barangay chairman and a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit in an ambush in Barangay Malibatuan in Arakan, Cotabato on Saturday morning, January 17.
Officials of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office 12 told reporters at noon Saturday that Jerry Bondad Prande, barangay chairman in Malibatuan and his relative, the militiaman Gemar Caro Prande, both died from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
Major Reynante Pascua, Arakan municipal police chief, said the victims were riding a motorcycle together, on their way somewhere, when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of the highway in Sitio Butterfly in Malibatuan, killing them both instantly.
Local officials and investigators from the Arakan Municipal Police Station who responded to the incident told reporters that the assailants of the barangay chairman and his kin immediately escaped using getaway motorcycles.
Investigators from the Arakan Municipal Police Station and local executives are cooperating in identifying their killers, according to Pascua and provincial police officials.
