Tawi-Tawi vice mayor shot dead in Zamboanga City

July 11, 2018

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot a vice mayor from Tawi-tawi at a busy street,  police reported Wednesday.

Senior Insp. Shellamie Chang, Zamboanga City Police information officer, said  Al-Rasid Mohammad Alih, 53, the vice mayor of Sapa-Sapa town in Tawi-Tawi, was shot around 5:07 pm near a funeral parlor along Gov. Alvarez Avenue, Barangay Camino Nuevo.

Chang said initial investigation showed Alih was aboard a sports utility vehicle with his family when one of two men riding in a motorcycle overtook them and shot the vice mayor twice.

Alih and his family came from a shopping mall.  Alih died while being treated at a hospital.

Chang said police are trying to identify and possibly arrest the suspects, one of whom wore a black jacket.

Sapa-Sapa, which consists of 23 barangays, is a third class town in the province of Tawi-Tawi. The town has a population of 30,917 as of the 2015 census.

Alih was the fourth elected official gunned down since last week in the Philippines. DMS