Gunman kills school principal in Philippines

From the Mindanao Examiner (Nov 14): Gunman kills school principal in Philippines

A lone gunman killed a school principal in a daring attack in the capital town of Bongao in the remote southern Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi, police said. Police said the gunman shot Conchita Francisco, 62, shortly after stepping outside a Catholic church. One woman was slightly wounded after being hit by the stray bullet, said Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, the provincial police chief. He said Francisco, the principal of the Mindanao State University-Laboratory Elementary School, was shot at close range during a power outage. “She came from mass and was shot outside the church. One woman who was near her was also hit by stray bullet and slightly injured,” Jocson told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner. No individual claimed responsibility for the attack, but Jocson the killing was probably connected to the victim’s work. “This is murder and we are looking into several angles and among this is the woman’s job as school principal,” Jocson said. He said one tricycle driver who was near the church witnessed the attack, but he refused to give any statement to the police for fear of reprisal. “There is a witness, but we cannot get anything from him. He is probably scared to talk to us and fears for his life,” he said. Police said Francisco was a devout Catholic and frequently went to hear mass in Bongao and had been appointed principal just last year. It was not immediately known whether the assailant is a hired killer or a member of the Abu Sayyaf group. In 2008, Abu Sayyaf militants raided a Catholic convent at the compound of the Notre Dame High School in Tawi-Tawi’s South Ubian town and killed Father Rey Roda in a botched kidnapping. Roda was praying when 10 gunmen barged in the convent and seized the priest and dragged him outside, but was eventually killed when he struggled to free himself. It was not the first time that the Abu Sayyaf killed a priest. In 2002, militants also kidnapped, tortured and killed a Claretian priest Roel Gallardo in Basilan province, several nautical miles south of Zamboanga City. In 1997, the Abu Sayyaf also assassinated a Catholic bishop Benjamin de Jesus in Jolo town in Sulu province. He was shot several times outside his church in a broad daylight attack. Three years later, the Abu Sayyaf also ambushed a Catholic missionary, Benjamin Inocencio, in Jolo town while buying gifts for poor Muslims. The Abu Sayyaf also randomly attacked and bombed Catholic churches in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and in Mindanao the past decades. The Abu Sayyaf, which means “Bearer of the Sword,” was originally fighting for a separate Islamic state similar to Afghanistan, but resorted to banditry and kidnappings for ransom after its Libyan firebrand founder, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, was killed in 1998 in a gun battle with policemen in Basilan province.

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20121114000717