Manila - Five people were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of a town deputy mayor in the southern Philippines, officials said Saturday. Vice Mayor Wilson Nadang was unhurt in the ambush which happened Friday in Santo Nino village near Tukuran, a town in the province Zamboanga del Sur, 810 kilometres south of Manila.
Nadang, who is deputy mayor of the nearby town Labangan, told a local radio station that five of his security escorts were killed in a gunbattle with the attackers.
Police said initial investigation showed the incident could have been a "misencounter" between Nadang's security escorts and government security forces manning a checkpoint.
But authorities stressed that the investigation was still ongoing and police were looking into the possibility that the attack was politically motivated.
