Local News

Firearms, explosives, mortars, ammunition, cal. 60 machine gun seized by government troops following clash with BIFF in Maguindanao.

LANAO DEL SUR – A policeman was killed while a municipal police chief and another subordinate were badly wounded when drug peddlers shot their vehicle with assault rifles on Tuesday in Picong town in Lanao del Sur.
The fatality, PO1 Rohodin Tahir, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY ---- Policemen in Region 12 had killed 57 drug traffickers and arrested 886 more from between July 1 to September 15 in operations launched with the help of local officials.Records obtained Monday from the office of Supt.

COTABATO CITY – Government forces foiled an attempt over the weekend by lawless
elements to inflict serious injuries or death to soldiers in Maguindanao,
officials said today.

Soldiers also
clashed with suspected Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao and
recovered high powered firearms.

Colonel
Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, said
three powerful improvised explosive devices were left at the doorstep of one of
the detachments in Barangay Meta, Datu Unsay, Maguindanao.

MEDIA STATEMENT OF PRESIDENTIAL PEACE ADVISER JESUS DUREZA on release of Norwegian hostage in SuluandNorwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad was released by his captors earlier today Saturday at around 2 p.m. somewhere in Patikul. Sulu. He is now staying overnight at the place of MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari in Barangay Kagay who volunteered to host his stay due to heavy rains and nightfall.

COTABATO CITY -- Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed by extremist Abu Sayyaf Group to the Moro National Liberation Front in Sulu on Friday evening and turned over to the government on Saturday afternoon, military sources and published reports said.In a statement, the Joint Task Group Sulu, saidSekkingstad one of the four abducted byAbu in Samal Island in Davao del Norte in September 2015, was still in Sulu as of 5 p.m.

MAGUINDANAO --- Stakeholders are optimistic of better days soon for the Mindanao peace process with the sustained zeal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to pursue its now 19-year diplomatic overture with Malacañang under a new president.The optimism, though tempered and guarded yet for some, was fanned by Wednesday’s change by the MILF’s figurehead, Al-Haj Murad, of their negotiating panel to an implementing panel” in keeping with a consensus with President Rodrigo Duterte to focus the peace process now on the implementation of all of their compacts with Malacañang.Murad on Wedne

KORONADAL CITY -- Since July 1, a total of 57 drug personalities who resisted arrest and opted to shoot it out with lawmen were killed during anti-illegal drug operations in Region 12, a police official said Thursday. There was no extra-judicial killings in the region, Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr, speaking for Police Regional Office (PRO-12) told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).Recently, all police stations chief across the region attended a seminar conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR-12) and Prosecutors from the region conducted in Gen. Santos City on the issue of human rights.

BANGA, South Cotabato -- A farmer in a remote village here has survived and overpowered an 11-foot long Diamond snake Tuesday morning, police said.Gabriel Mulana, a farmer of Barangay El Nonok, Banga, South Cotabato, brought the snake to the police to send a message to those gathering or collectingspiders the dangers in the bush.Mulana told DXOM-AM Radyo Bida that he was clearing the bushes in his farm at about 11 a.m. when he heard someone was whistling on him.

KORONADAL CITY – Unidentified gunmen shot dead Tuesday night a
school principal of Sultan Kudarat and wounded her husband at the outskirt
village here, police said.

Supt. Barney Condes, Koronadal City police director, identified
the victim as Jelyn Sumapal, principal of Sumapal Elementary School in Barangay
Palavilla, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat.

Her husband, Antonio Sumapal, was critically injured.

Police said the ambush site was in the borders of Koronadal City
and Lutayan in Sultan Kudarat.