COTABATO CITY – Secretary Tamar Kulayan of Deped- Armm was reported to have been ambushed while on its way from Marawi City en route to Cotabato City early afternoon of Monday, 23 July 2012, while at the vicinity of Barangay Pendulunan, Ganassi, Lanao Del Sur.
P/SInsp Rejiv Lopez Alih of the Police Regional Public Safety Battalion-ARMM in a submitted report reveals that Secretary Kulayan together with some ARMM officials and personnel came from a hearing at the Regional Trial Court, 12th Judicial Region, Branch 8, Marawi City on the issue involving the remerging of DepED-ARMM Division in two (2) Lanao Districts.
While the hearing was in progress, vehicle escorts observed that some unidentified persons were seen scoping at the plate number of the vehicles used by the convoy. Also, while reaching Brgy Pendulunan, a suspicious-looking individual on board a motorcycle with a handheld radio transceiver alongside the convoy was seen contacting someone.
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After a while, volley of gunshots from several unidentified armored men was heard prompting police escorts to return fire in retaliation. No one was reported hit or wounded in the said incident.
ARMM-OIC Regional Governon Mujiv Hataman has tasked and directed Secretary Kulayan to initiate reforms at the said corrupt-laden agency. Lanao del Sur to Marawi City have five divisions which eat up 60-70% of the agency’s resources.
The merger of four (4) divisions into two (2) is calculated at reducing the questionable budget allocations for Lanao areas. The same merger order also included that in Sulu from the existing two (2) to the original one (1) division. (BPI-ARMM/tengdatu)
