Mindanao Armed Conflict

COTABATO CITY --- The Army’s 6^th Infantry Division honored Friday the two soldiers killed by Dawlah Islamiya bandits while performing anti-coronavirus frontline duties in Datu Hoffer town in Maguindanao.

The honor rites preceded the transport of the cadavers of Corporals Jermie Ombiang and Vicente Gata of the 57^th Infantry Battalion to their respective hometowns in central Mindanao.

Col. Steve Crespillo of the 6^th ID led the event, held at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

COTABATO CITY --- A police team killed in a brief shootout Thursday in Marawi City a kidnapper who was among top ten most wanted persons in Lanao del Sur.

Colopoy Ayonan died from multiple gunshot wounds sustained in an encounter with combined personnel of the Lanao del Sur provincial police and the Army’s 82^nd Infantry Battalion under the 103^rd Brigade.

SOUTH COTABATO --- Eleven more New People’s Army guerillas surrendered in Santo Niño town Sunday and together renounced their membership with the group in the presence of local officials.

Arnel Sabarillo, Hina Kim Belet, Bong Pendatun, John-John Agang, Marlon Yto, Edgar Permalino, Lemuel Magudinog, Ramil Bautista, Dionedes Alberto, Modesto Dading, and Abner Hinggilio, also turned in assorted firearms and components for improvised explosive devices.

MATALAM, North Cotabato  – Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco on Sunday took time off from her activities to maintain the province coronavirus free and visited this town to prevent the escalation of armed hostilities involving two Moro clans.

After receiving briefings from the security sector, Catamco has asked officials of the 602nd Infantry Brigade and the Cotabato police provincial office to ensure the safety of civilians from the villages of Kidama and Marbel, both in Matalam and facilitate their immediate return.

COTABATO CITY --- Hundreds of villagers have fled from interior barangays in Matalam, North Cotabato where two heavily armed Moro groups are locked in a deadly showdown since Wednesday.

Two longtime adversaries, the Ambel clan, identified with the Moro National Liberation Front, and the group of allies Naig Naga and Mail Imbong, both members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, are involved in the internecine gunfights in Barangays Kilada and Marbel in Matalam.

MAGUINDANAO -- Two grades school children were killed Friday when a grenade they found a while hunting for swamp birds in exploded.

The fatalities, Nash Utto and Edris Guiaman, died from multiple shrapnel wounds.

They were hunting for birds in a wetland in Barangay Sampao in Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao where they found the grenade that they played with and went off.

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Soldiers killed a member of a local terror group and wounded two others in a brief encounter in Isulan town Thursday.

Personnel of the Army’s 2^nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion were patrolling in a secluded area in Barangay Laguilayan in Isulan,Sultan Kudarat when suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiya attacked them from different directions, sparking a gunfight.

KORONADAL CITY — Two police officers were killed in an ambush by still unidentified gunmen in the town of Polomolok, South Cotabato province on Wednesday (April 29).

Lt. Col. Lino Capellan, regional police spokesperson, said the policemen — Corporal Witzel Russ Bitantos and Patrolman Bryan Costello—didn’t survive multiple gunshot wounds and died in a hospital.

The officers, who report to the Polomolok police force, were with two other policemen when they were attacked past 2 p.m. at the village of Koronadal Proper.

All four police officers were riding motorcycles.

COTABATO CITY --- A senior Abu Sayyaf leader in Sulu surrendered Saturday and renounced his membership with the group in the presence of police and military officials.

Mawallil Saiyadi also turned in two assault rifles, one fitted with a 40 millimeter grenade launcher, as he promised to reform for good before local officials in Parang town in Sulu province.

COTABATO CITY --- The Lanao del Sur police has mobilized its forces to locate a wanted murderer whose companions wounded three policemen in a bungled attempt to peacefully arrest him Sunday in Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur.

"We are now trying to locate the suspect, Meranda Bagnas, who ran away during the encounter," Lanao del Sur's police director, Col. Madzgani Mukaram, said Monday.

Mukaram said Monday the wounded policemen, Captain Karl Vincent Centinaje, Corporal Morsed Maliga and Patrolman Abdul Khamied Unda, are now confined in a hospital.