6 rubber plantation workers killed, 18 hurt in Basilan ambush – police

Six rubber plantation workers were killed in an ambush by still unidentified armed men on Wednesday morning, police said.

 

Superintendent Alberto Supapo, deputy regional director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, said the victims were strafed in Barangay Tumahubong in Sumisip town at 5:40 a.m.

 

At least 18 others were injured due to the incident, although police could not immediately identify all the victims, he added.

 

Supapo likewise said the fatalities were all rubber tappers — or workers who collect the sap from rubber trees — of the Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Incorporated Development Cooperative.

 

In April, three security personnel of the same rubber plantation were killed in an ambush, which the military linked to the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf bandit group. — with Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News