Election officer shot dead in Sultan Kudarat

A Maguindanao election officer was shot dead in Sultan Kudarat on Monday in what the Commission on Elections has condemned as a "brazen killing." 

Citing an initial police report, Comelec said that Haviv M. Maindan, Election Officer II of Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in a vehicle along National Highway in Purok Libas, Barangay Pinguiaman in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat.

Maindan, 55, had been on his way to Sultan sa Barongis with another individual when the assailants approached their car and shot at them at around 2:30 p.m., then fled the scene. The vehicle's other passenger was not hit.

Comelec said that it is cooperating with the Philippine National Police, which has alerted checkpoints for the suspects.

The poll body also mourned the loss of a man who had "rendered 15 years of faithful government service" in the commission.

"His untimely demise left behind his wife and four children, all of whom are still in school, with the eldest in college and the youngest in elementary. They all have lost a loving husband and an ever doting and caring father," Comelec said.

"With the unknown assailants still at large, Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia, the Commissioners and the whole Commission on Elections commit to the family of EO Maindan that we will not rest until justice is served," it added. — BM, GMA Integrated News