Sultan kudarat: Police authorities in Sultan Kudarat province have launched a manhunt against two gunmen who shot dead a village chairperson of President Quirino town on Monday morning. Maj. Aljun Besario, chief of the President Quirino Municipal Police Station, identified the victim as Bernaned A. Barua, 53, chairperson of Barangay Bannawag, President Quirino.

According to Philippines News Agency, the village official was sitting in front of a variety store, eating with his wife and another companion, when he was attacked by one of two gunmen who arrived on a motorbike. Barua sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The gunmen then fled toward the village of Malingon, also in President Quirino.

Police have launched a hot-pursuit operation to arrest the suspects while the forensic unit of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police office has conducted a crime scene investigation. The victim is reportedly seeking another term as village chief of Bannawag in the forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections slated for November 2 this year.

Meanwhile, a suspect in the 2015 attack against the Philippine National Police's Special Action Force (SAF) in Maguindanao del Sur was killed during a police law enforcement operation in Barangay Kuloy, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur on Sunday. Capt. Steffi Salanguit, speaking for the police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, identified the slain gun-for-hire suspect as Rambo Guiasalim, alias London, a resident of Barangay Kuloy.

Operatives from Shariff Aguak municipal police station and Provincial Mobile Force Company were to serve warrants of arrest against Guiasalim, but he resisted and traded shots with lawmen at about 5 p.m. Sunday. The lawmen were forced to return fire, hitting Guiasalem. His wife, Marisa Khalid, was wounded while his companion, Tatlo Edzong, was arrested.

Police recovered a .45-caliber pistol, ammunition, and illegal drugs from the slain suspect, while Edzong yielded a hand grenade. Guiasalem was linked to the murder of the SAF 44 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao del Sur. He was also linked to the 2014 murder of Alfredo Amelista, the former Shariff Aguak municipal administrator, and to illegal drug trade.