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by unidentified armed men on January 18, Monday, around 9:00 in the evening at barangay lower Salbu
here.
The four victims were identified as Abdullah Salibat Pagabangan (Father), 36 years old, Rahma (wife), 36
years old, daughters Samrah, 16 years old and Tana Pagabangan, 4 years old. The victims were travelling
in a motorcycle when rapid gunfire flared‐up.
Three of the victims were killed at that night while one of
them survived the ambush and was able to seek help from the
nearby residents to contact her relatives using her cell phone,
said survivor Samrah Pagabangan who had gunshot wounds
on her right pelvic area, right chest and two legs.
According to her in an interview at the Cotabato Regional &
Medical Center (CRMC), they were travelling along the road
they called lining at Lower Salbu riding on a motorcycle with
his father, mother and sister from a family gathering they
called “Kanduli” they attended with their relatives at the Survivor of ambush incident Samrah
Barangay Iganagampong, Datu Saudi Ampatuan Municipality Pagabangan, 16 years old, confined at the
CRMC.
when series of gunshots echoed and hit them.
Few minutes after the firing, 3 gunmen wearing camouflage uniform with bonnets walked towards them
and checked if they were already dead. One of those gunmen even touched her wounds to confirm if
she was dead, as she was pretending to be also dead.
When their gunmen fled, she walked towards her mother checking her conditions. Her mother who is a
6 month pregnant, at that time was still alive, spoke to her to seek some help from the nearby residents.
She (Samrah) then approached one of the residents near the ambush site but refused to help them
saying that they were one of the assets of the other group that’s why they were shot.
She then walked towards the other nearby residents and was able to seek help to contact her relatives
using her own cell phone before she collapsed.
She was responded by her relatives then and fetched to Datu Piang Rural Health Unit (RHU) around
10:00 o’clock in the evening and was given first aid by the medical practitioners. But for some reasons,
the Datu Piang RHU recommended to transfer her to CRMC.
Using the ambulance of Datu Piang Municipality, she was then travelled and being accompanied by her
aunts arriving at CRMC around 1:00 o’clock in the morning of January 19, 2009.
Her families’, on the same interview, speculates that they became collateral damage by the alleged
warring group between Commander Basco and Mamalapat Tamano who had an encounter last January
06, 2010.
To date, the poor survivor is at the said hospital hoping to be served with full medical attention. It is still
unknown to her that her mother died few minutes after the incident, while her father and younger sister
believed to be dead on the spot.
These victims are also belongs to the group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were once
affected by the 2008 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – Military armed conflict and were then
temporarily taking refuge at the evacuation center along the Barangay Salbu. – RISE‐Mindanao