Local News

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- After four months in hiding, finally, a fugitive considered the most ‘high risk’ among the 158 inmates that bolted from the Cotabato district jail here, was apprehended by authorities on Friday.Melvin Tiangao Casangyao, who faces several drug trafficking charges, was recaptured on Friday, around 820 a.m., inside his hideout at Barangay Onica, this city.Casangyao, intelligence reports said, is one of the leaders of a big-time drug syndicate operating in North Cotabato and other parts of south and central Mindanao.Based from the evidences gathered by the Cotabato Police Pro

ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat -- MIlitary and police authorities here have intensified pursuit operations against a band of lawless elements following a clash Friday that left 10 armed men killed and a soldier injured.Sporadic clashes were reported in the hinterlands of Barangay Bual, Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.Photos from 33rd Infantry Battalion are shown here with infantrymen firing mortars toward enemy position and the injured soldier, Sgt.Davides Endario.

COTABATO CITY -- Two suspected drug personalities were killed for resisting arrest during police anti-drug operation in Barangay Bagua Dos, Cotabato City Friday.Chief Insp. Reynaldo Delaten, police station 4 commander, identified the slain drug suspects as Kamad Taup and Jun Dalandar, both residents of Bagua Dos.Danilo
Lariousa Jr. and Freddie Bello, were arrested in the mid-day operation.Seized from them were a cal. 45 pistol and several sachets of shabu.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Five suspected drug personalities, all considered high-value targets, were arrested in three separate raids in Matalam, North Cotabato in what they dubbed as, One Time, Big Time , under Duterte administration’s war against drugs.Chief Inspector Sunny Leoncito, chief of Matalam PNP, identified the suspects as Neneng Galvez, Ralph Sosmena, both residents of Purok Rosal, Poblacion, Matalam Mastura Silongan, Jessie Toranio, and Kasanudin Colin, all residents of Purok Birds of Paradise, Poblacion.Leoncito said they recovered from the raids several sachets of methamphetamine h

KIDAPAWAN CITY – While few barangays in Pikit town in North Cotabato have been inundated after heavy rains over the weekend, a disaster risk official said residents in these villages have already become ‘resilient’.Pikit municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer Tahira Kalantongan described them as ‘resilient’ and can easily adopt to the situation.

CAMP SIONGCO,
Maguindanao – The military here has deployed more Marine troopers
in the hinterlands of the coastal town of Sultan Kudarat following a brief
firefight with communist rebels over the weekend, an Army official today said.

As of
this report, pursuit and blockade are being conducted by our ground troops to
thwart the extrication of the rebels, Major Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of
the 6th Infantry Division based here, said.

MIDSAYAP,
North Cotabato (May 15) – Police have sent peacekeepers to separate
Muslim warring clans that erupted anew in a remote village here, police said.

Supt. Bernard
Tayong, police chief of Midsayap police office, said the peacekeepers include
the Philippine Army, village watchmen and militiamen.

Involved in
clan war are the families of Namin and Sugod who have been locked in a long
standing land dispute that in the village of Lower Gland.

KORONADAL CITY -- Members of cooperatives across Region 12 do not want to pay taxes to the government and aired their opposition during a rally in Koronadal City and Kidapawan City.The protesters cited three reasons why cooperatives should be tax-exempt.One, they say, 90 percent of cooperative members belonged to the poorest of the poor sector. Second, the cooperatives will not grow if it pay taxes to the government and third, services to its members will deminish.

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Lawmen arrested before dawn Friday two key distributors of a wanted drug lord in Maguindanao who lost a son and two followers in an encounter with soldiers the day before.Drug dealers Totak Makadendig and Jojo Kansi were nabbed in Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat by a team of combined personnel of the municipal and provincial police offices and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Region 12.Makadendig and Kansi are both connected with Abdulatip Pendaliday, also known as Grasscutter, a large-scale trader of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) operating i

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Two gunmen, both posted as bus passengers, shot dead the vehicle’s driver while traversing the national highway in Makilala town in North Cotabato, around 430 a.m., Friday, reports said.The Makilala PNP identified the victim as Jessie Taray, driver of the Mindanao Bus Star and a resident of Barangay Malabuan, Makilala.Investigators said the suspects boarded the bus at the Kidapawan City’s overland terminal and when they reached Barangay Malasila ordered the driver to stop the vehicle.Before the suspects disembarked from the bus one of them pumped bullets onto the driver’s