Police hunt armed group behind slay of tribal leader in Maguindanao del Sur

Maguindanao del Sur, Philippines  (October 2) – Police authorities are pursuing an armed group believed to be behind the brutal killing of a tribal leader in a remote village in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan on Tuesday afternoon.

Col. Sultan Salman Sapal, provincial police director of Maguindanao del Sur, confirmed in an interview Wednesday that he has ordered the Datu Hoffer Ampatuan Municipal Police Station to track down and arrest the suspects.

“The indigenous peoples’ (IP) tribal leader, Nel Lupos, was allegedly beheaded by still unidentified armed men,” Sapal said.

Lupos, 60, a former village councilor of Barangay Mantao and a resident of Barangay Limpongo, was found dead beside a dirt road around 6 p.m.

Tribal chieftain Leticio Datuwata of the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) political structure said Lupos was a member of the Teduray-Lambangian community.

According to Datuwata, Lupos was resting in his nipa hut on his farmland when several armed men barged in, dragged him outside, and killed him for still unknown reasons.

“He was alone in his nipa hut when attacked,” Datuwata said in the vernacular.

The tribal leader recalled that Lupos had moved to Mantaw village after the killing of another tribal leader, Baywan Angan, in December last year.

Datuwata suspects the killing stemmed from a land dispute, claiming that the gunmen had been pressuring Lupos to abandon his farm, which they had been asserting ownership of.

Police investigators are still determining the identities of the suspects and the motive behind the attack.