Datukon, on board a green Pajero, was on his way to his office when waylaid by a man armed with an M-16 armalite rifle, at the junction of Notre Dame and Quezon avenues, just in front of the LBC establishment. Datukon’s driver, identified only as Michael, is in critical condition, hospital authorities said.
Police said Datukon, former dean of the Notre Dame University’s College of Law, received eight bullets in different parts of his body, mostly to his head. He died a few minutes after he was rushed to the Cotabato City Medical Specialist Hospital.
The suspects fled on board a motorcycle.
Sr. Insp. Samson Obatay, Jr., spokesman for the Cotabato City Police Office, is still puzzled as to the motive of the killing but said the victim has been receiving death threats since.
Before his appointment as ARMM Social Fund executive in 2005, Datukon served as dean of the NDU College of Law and before that, as city councilor for three terms.
He ran as representative for the first district of Maguindanao in 2004 but lost to Bai Zeny Dilangalen, wife of former Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, currently spokesperson of former President Joseph Estrada.
Datukon was the second development worker killed in Cotabato City in four days. On September 30, Norodin Sendatuk, staff of the Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc., (KFI), a non-government organization working for the advancement of the Moro people in Mindanao, was shot dead while on his way home. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)
