A 68-year-old commander of the Moro National Liberation Front, Asbirin Naing Kalahuddin, leader of the MNLF Snake Camp Muran, was killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen in Sibuco town, Zamboanga del Norte last Wednesday. According to Maj. Haran Ulah, Sibuco town police chief, Kalahuddin was driving his Multica when two men on a motorcycle overtook his vehicle and shot him, resulting in a fatal head wound. Meanwhile, police in Luuk town, Sulu, seized ₱12.5 million worth of smuggled cigarettes from a convoy of three vehicles last Wednesday. Brig. Gen. Jaysen de Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, reported that the drivers were arrested, with one found carrying a caliber .45 pistol. In other news, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, former chief of the Western Mindanao Command, as the new commanding general of the Philippine Army, succeeding the retired Lt. Gen. Roy Galido. Nafarrete, a Mindanao veteran, is the 67th leader of the 143,000-strong force.
