Mindanao Armed Conflict

COTABATO CITY --- The director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region has approved the proposed creation of a special probe team to look into the March 19 murder of a retired police general who was public safety officer of the local government unit here.

Officials of PRO-BAR told reporters Wednesday the Bangsamoro region’s police director, Brig. Gen.  Arthur Cabalona, ordered the other day the activation of a special investigation task group to put closure on the brutal killing of retired Police Brig. Gen. Rolen Balquin.

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities impounded Monday a vehicle resembling the one used by the killers of the public safety officer of the city government who was killed in a daring attack here Saturday.

Retired Brig. Gen. Rolen Balquin, former director of the Cotabato City Police Office, was gunned down by men armed with .45 pistols while about to alight from his vehicle along Sinsuat Avenue here on Saturday morning.

KIDAPAWAN CITY --- The police has clamped down the siblings tagged in last week’s beheading in Arakan, North Cotabato of a farmer whose ears and sex organ they also cut and threw away.

Givehart Masunong, 23, and his 19-year-old brother, John Paul, surrendered over the weekend to community leaders in Barangay Banate in Malungon, Sarangani when they learned that witnesses have pointed to them as behind the brutal murder five days before of farmer Berlie Rama.

COTABATO CITY – Brig. Gen. Arthur R Cabalona, regional director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), has condemned the “blatant act of violence that resulted to the killing of the city public order and safety department head and wounding of a PNP member in broad daylight” in the city Saturday.

Cabalona also appealed for help from anyone who witnessed the shooting to provide authorities with information that will help fast tract the investigation on the murder of retired Colonel Rolen Balquin, city public order and safety head.

COTABATO CITY --- DEAD ON ARRIVAL SA PAGAMUTAN si Cotabato City Public Safety Officer Retired Colonel Rolen Balquin matapos na siya ay barilin kaninang pasado alas diyes ng umaga sa Macapagal Street, Mother Barangay Rosary Heights.

Sugatan din sDriver na kinilalang si PCMS Arial Gutang na miyembro umanonng PNP, 47 years old, na residente ng ND Village, Cotabato City.

Pinaniniwalaang kalibre 45 ang ginamit sa pamamaril base sa initial report ng PNP.

Sa panayam ng DXMS Radyo Bida sa apo ng biktima, inabi nito na sa dibdib at sa ulo tinamaan ang kaniyang lolo.

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao -- Three were killed in separate gun attacks here in a span of just 24 hours.

The last to fall was Bangon Modul, ambushed by gunmen in Sitio Tenorio in Barangay Awang here on Thursday morning.

He was riding his motorcycle en route to Labungan here when men on a vehicle trailing behind shot him with M16 rifles as they got close.

Responding personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police found in the scene spent 5.56 millimeter bullet shells, the ammunition for an M16 rifle.

MATANOG, Maguindanao --- Seven residents here now face double murder and multiple frustrated murder charges for allegedly having killed a farmer and a three-year-old child in a gun attack last week that also hurt three others.

Col. Jibin Bongcayao, Maguindanao’s provincial police director, confirmed Thursday that criminal cases had been filed against the culprits.

Efforts to locate them are still underway, according to Bongcayao.

“That gruesome incident is obviously related to a `rido’ involving the families of the victims and their attackers,” Bongcayao said.

DATU SAUDI AMPATUAN, Maguindanao - A member of the Army’s 40^th Infantry Battalion committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Barangay Kabinge here.

Barangay officials and personnel of the Datu Saudi Ampatuan Municipal Police found the cadaver of Private 1^st Class Manuel Catalan on Wednesday, three days after he was seen walking along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Kabinge here.

ZAMBOANGA CITY – A sub-leader of the Dawlah Islamiya-Maute Group (DI-MG) surrendered to military authorities in Lanao del Sur after being demoralized with continuing government efforts to neutralize local terrorist groups, a top military official said  Wednesday.

Alinor Itak Ibrahim alias Liya, 26, yielded and turned over an M16 rifle, as he pledged allegiance to the government Tuesday at the headquarters of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade (103rd IBde) in Marawi City.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao --- The 6^th Infantry Division got from the Philippine Army Headquarters more than P1 million worth of provisions, a new pick-up truck and a motorcycle essential to its peace-building activities meant to nip local terror groups from the bud.

The equipment grant, which included two-way radios,  uniforms and combat boots was one of the highlights of the March 1 to 22 commemoration of the 125^th anniversary of the Philippine Army.