TIMRA Reports

COTABATO CITY - A member of the now obviously weakened Abu Sayyaf in Basilan surrendered this week to the mayor of Lamitan City in Basilan. 

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters Saturday the Abu Sayyaf member turned in a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle to Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay before he renounced his membership with the group. 

Nobleza declined to identify the Abu Sayyaf member for his safety. 

The group is known for attacking members who have surrendered and their relatives.

COTABATO CITY - Six from two feuding Tausug clans perished in a gunfight Wednesday in an interior barangay in Indanan town in Sulu.

Major Edwin Catayao Sapa, chief of the Indanan municipal police, on Saturday confirmed the incident that resulted in the death of six persons in a report to the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Sapa said the deadly gunfight involved two families squabbling for ownership of a patch of agricultural land in Barangay Bunot in Indanan.

KORONADAL CITY – Police authorities in South Cotabato arrested Saturday a former communist rebel hitman who was the primary suspect in the murder of an off-duty police officer on April 21 in Barangay Fatima, Gen. Santos City.

On Sunday, Police Captain Adolf Dave Diaz, Gen. Santos City police station 7 acting commander, identified the alleged gunman as Jengilo Sotto, 30, also known as “Boyaks,” a resident of Barangay Poblacion, Alabel, Sarangani province. 

COTABATO CITY - Authorities cornered on Saturday in Polomolok, South Cotabato the suspect in the murder of an anti-terror police intelligence agent two days before in General Santos City.

Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Sunday Jengilo Sotto, found by pursuing local officials and policemen in Barangay Klinan in Polomolok, is now detained.

COTABATO CITY - Policemen shot dead a resident of Lamitan City in Basilan whose house they were to peacefully search for explosives in an operation Thursday night that went awry when he resisted.

In a report to the headquarters here of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, the chief of the Lamitan City police, Lt. Col. Arlan Delumpines, said Ganim Uyag Muksim, also known as Hadji Ganim, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.

COTABATO CITY --- The police clamped down on Tuesday night a former barangay chairman wanted for violation of the Republic Act 9262 and parricide for having killed his wife last year.

RA 9262 is also known as the Violence Against Women and Children’s Act.

The 52-year-old Eddie Tayao Tiwado peacefully yielded to combined personnel of the Police Regional Office-12 while in the residence in Barangay Nagpan in Malungon of the former mayor of the municipality, Reynaldo Constantino, who helped convince him to surrender and face his cases that are pending in courts.

COTABATO CITY - Two sibling-militiamen and a woman were killed in a grenade blast in an interior village in Labason town in Zamboanga del Norte on Friday afternoon.

The Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Police Office said in a statement Monday that blast victims Diego Babor Barnido and his younger brother, Benefrancis, and a relative, Sabina Baylosis Barnido, succumbed to serious shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.

The Barnido brothers are both members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, according to the local police.

COTABATO CITY - Two motorists died while six others were seriously hurt when a wayward truck rammed five motorcycles from behind in Pagadian City on Sunday night.

In an initial statement Monday, the Pagadian City Police Office said the two fatalities, delivery rider Carl Francis Buico and a still unidentified motorist, were declared dead on arrival in a hospital where policemen and barangay emergency responders rushed them for treatment.

COTABATO CITY - Anti-narcotics agents seized P20.4 million worth of shabu that a dealer tried to smuggle into the town proper of Luuk in Sulu province before dawn Saturday.

The suspect, Almando Insali, managed to run away and leave his illegal merchandise behind when he noticed anti-narcotics agents, policemen and personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard blocking the route towards the center of Luuk.

Insali hails from Zamboanga City and has been delivering shabu personally to Luuk and nearby towns, according to police and military intelligence units in Sulu.

ZAMBOANGA CITY - A village official and two others were wounded while the official’s driver was killed in an ambush in a remote area in Basilan province, a top police official said Monday.

Lt. Col. Arlan Delumpines, Lamitan City police chief, said the incident occurred around 3:50 p.m. in Barangay Maloong San Jose.

Delumpines identified the slain driver as Omar Akirin, who died on the spot.

Wounded were Robert Jalal, village chief of Simbangon, and his companions, Akil Nasala and Sali Muslimin.