Fugitive siblings arrested in North Cotabato town
NORTH COTABATO --- State operatives captured the elusive siblings Montukan and Walo Bungay, long wanted for heinous offenses, after a six-hour chase in Pikit town Sunday.
The duo was tagged in high-profile crimes, including robbery with homicide, multiple murder, frustrated murder and cattle theft.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said the Bungays were cornered in Barangay Bualan in Pikit, North Cotabato by personnel of the 602nd Brigade led by Brig. Gen. Roberto Capulong and members of the Philippine National Police.
A combined police-Army team was to peacefully serve the suspects warrants for their arrest from the Regional Trial Court Branch 28 in the province, but the operation turned haywire when they resisted, opened fire and ran away.
“Troops from units of the 602nd Infantry Brigade and their counterparts from the PNP chased them until they were cornered with the help of villagers who provided information on their exact location,” Uy said.
Uy lauded Capulong and personnel of the 90th and 34th Infantry Battalions, both under the 602nd Brigade, the 6th ID’s 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company, the operatives from the North Cotabato provincial police and the Pikit municipal police for the arrest of the Bungays.
The Bungays have eluded previous attempts to clamp them down.
Uy said the suspects turned in two M16 assault rifles and a .45 caliber pistol.
“It is up for the police to charge them with illegal possession of firearms,” Uy said.
He said the operation that resulted in the arrest of the Bungays was assisted by the Army’s Intelligence Service Unit 12 and the Regional Intelligence Division of the Police Regional Office-12.
“The long hand of law has finally reached them,” Uy said.