The Pasay City police have formed a special team to identify and arrest the two men who shot and wounded a Maguindanao town mayor Wednesday evening along the Roxas Boulevard service road.

Pasay City police chief Col. Froilan Uy formed the team and assigned cops to ensure the safety of the victim, Mayor Ohto Montawal of the town of Datu Montawal who was shot while inside his van.

Montawal was in stable condition after being shot twice by the two men aboard a motorcycle.

Uy said the team has reviewed closed-circuit television camera footage taken from Manila up to the service road of Roxas Boulevard in Barangay 4, Pasay City where Montawal was attacked around 6 p.m.

He said the suspects drove close to the vehicle of the victim and shot at the occupants.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos, Jr. has also ordered an investigation of the shooting.

Montawal sustained gunshot wounds on his hip and left arm. He was rushed to Ospital ng Maynila by a companion and later transferred to another medical center.

The Pasay incident followed the shooting of Lanao Del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. last 17 February. Adiong was wounded while four of his aides were killed in an ambush in the town of Maguing.

On 19 February, Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda of Aparri town, Cagayan Province and five of his companions were killed in an ambush in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.

The three brazen attacks on local government officials have earned flak for the Philippine National Police over the perception of a deteriorating peace and order situation.