Govt forces miss wanted village chief but seize high powered guns

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato -- Joint police and military forces seized high powered firearms from the house of a village official in North Cotabato as government troops implemented Oplan Double Barrel Alpha, police said today. But Supt. Bernard Tayong, police chief of Midsayap police station, admitted the subject of a search warrant issued by a local court, Chairperson Renz Tukuran of Barangay Lumupog, Midsayap, North Cotabato, managed to escape. Tukuran, alias Datu Puti, was one of the suspected drug lord operating in the borders of North Cotabato and Maguindanao. Tayong said after an intelligence operative confirmed the presence of Tukuran in the village, joint police, military, anti-narcotics units and Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Group, rushed to Barangay Lumupog, a village in the borders of Midsayap and Datu Piang in Maguindanao. The suspect and his men fled to the marshland after they noticed government forces moving toward Barangay Lumupog, Tayong said. Government forces found in Tukuran's home one cal. 50 machine gun, one cal. 30 machine gun, five M-1 Garand rifles, one M-14 Armalite rifle, one Rocket Propelled Grenade, two 60 mm mortar, six hand grenades, a rifle grenade, three M-203 launcher, ammunition and bomb making devices. The raiding team also seized several sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride from Tukuran's home. The fugitive village official has about 50 heavily armed followers believed to be engaged in illegal drugs and cattle rustling.