DAVAO CITY —Police are actively searching for the gunman who fatally shot a village councilor and indigenous peoples (IP) leader during a wedding ceremony in South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, on Tuesday night.
Leticia Datuwata, supreme tribal head of Timuay Justice and Governance, identified the victim as Elvin Moires, a councilman from Barangay Bongo in South Upi.
Moires was attending an IP wedding when he was attacked by an unidentified gunman, according to Datuwata.
Villagers rushed Moires to a hospital in Poblacion Timanan, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
While the motive for the killing remains unclear, Datuwata emphasized that Moires was a vocal advocate for issues affecting IP communities, including land grabbing, harassment, and displacement due to armed groups. Notably, he had survived a previous attack in 2018.
Since 2018, approximately 78 IP leaders and members have been killed in the upland areas of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, and North Upi, Maguindanao del Norte.
