Henchmen of drug lord `Grasscutter' nabbed in Lambayong town

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Lawmen arrested before dawn Friday two key distributors of a wanted drug lord in Maguindanao who lost a son and two followers in an encounter with soldiers the day before.Drug dealers Totak Makadendig and Jojo Kansi were nabbed in Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat by a team of combined personnel of the municipal and provincial police offices and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Region 12.Makadendig and Kansi are both connected with Abdulatip Pendaliday, also known as Grasscutter, a large-scale trader of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) operating in Maguindanao’s nearby Pandag, Paglat, SK Pendatun and Datu Paglas towns.Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, director of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, said two cohorts of the duo, Rolando and Zainudin, escaped when they noticed the raiding teams approach their hideout.Supiter said they learned of the presence of Makadendig and Kansi in a farming village in Lambayong from vigilant residents who provided information on their exact location.Supiter said the raiding team recovered from the two drug traffickers a gauge 12 shotgun, a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle and shabu.Supiter said Makadendig and Kansi shall both be prosecuted for violation of the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act and illegal possession of firearms.Their supplier of shabu is Pendaliday, according to barangay officials, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.The son of Pendaliday, Samir and nephew, Rakim and a follower named Nasrudin Saligan, were killed in a shootout with police and personnel of the Army’s 33rdInfantry Battalion at the boundary of Maguindanao’s Pandag and Datu Paglas towns early Thursday.The soldiers, led by Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, were accompanying policemen searching for Pendaliday when they were attacked by gunmen from two directions, sparking a firefight.Although outnumbered, Cabunoc and his men returned fire, killing Samir, Rakim and Saligan, all bodyguards of Pendaliday, on the scene. We were approaching their hideout when they opened fire, forcing us to return fire and initiate maneuvers to outflank them, Cabunoc said.Pendaliday surrendered to authorities last year and even swore over the Qur’an to reform for good, but resumed with his drug trafficking activities in February, according to barangay officials.Investigators recovered from the scene of the encounter three M16 rifles, three M-203 rifles fitted with launchers for 40 millimeter grenade projectiles and a single-shot shoulder-fire M-79 grenade launcher.They also found P170,000 worth of shabu in the hideout of the suspects.Barangay residents told investigators Pendaliday managed to escape while his men fought the approaching soldiers and policemen.