United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) senatorial candidate Jack Enrile may not be the real target of the sniping incident in Compostela Valley after all.

Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan, director of the Compostela Valley police, said it is the police car which appeared to be the most logical target.

“The most probable target is our personnel, considering a marked vehicle was used,” said Cascolan.

It was recalled that Enrile was on his way to Tagum City from a campaign sortie in Monkayo town when an unidentified gunman fired a shot on his seven-vehicle convoy.

It was the police patrol car leading the convoy which was hit at the hinge of a door on the passenger side of the vehicle. No one was hurt.

Cascolan said it is somehow improbable that Enrile was the target since it was the police car which was shot and not the other unmarked vehicle.

He then linked the incident to aggressive police and military operations in the province following the abduction of a police sergeant last week.

The official could not immediately say who the perpetrator or perpetrators are but said the town of Mawab where the sniping incident occurred is known to be a regular route of local communist rebels.  

Following the incident, Enrile has been at the receiving end of social media attacks claiming that the alleged sniping was staged, in an apparent dig at the controversial ambush of his father in the early 1970s.