By Edwin Fernandez

CRIME SCENE. Police personnel from Maguing MPS visit the site where a lady public school teacher was abducted on Wednesday (Aug. 12, 2026). A police manhunt is underway to apprehend those responsible for the abduction. (Photo courtesy of Lanao del Sur PPO)

COTABATO CITY – Police authorities in Lanao del Sur have launched a manhunt against two armed men who abducted a female public school teacher in Maguing town on Wednesday.

In a report released Thursday, Capt. Steffi Salangguit, spokesperson of Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR), said the victim, Baesarome Dagalangit Bagul, a teacher of Malungun Elementary School and a resident of Barangay Malungun, Maguing, was on her way home on board a tricycle when she was snatched.

Initial investigation by the Maguing Municipal Police Station (MPS) showed that at around 9:25 a.m., Bagul boarded a passenger tricycle driven by Saidona Musa from the municipality of Mulondo bound for Maguing.

Two men on board a vehicle blocked their path, forcibly took the teacher, forced her inside the vehicle, and then sped off.

Salanguit said Hakeem Magandia, barangay secretary of Malungun, and tricycle driver Musa went to the Maguing police station to report the incident.

Police initially identified only one of the two abductors as alias “Arab,” as the motive behind the incident is still being determined.

The incident occurred while the election gun ban is in effect in Lanao del Sur ahead of the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections next month. (PNA)