Hunt for two other targets in bloody police operation launched
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 11:30 AM Mon Jan 25, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Thirteen were killed, among them a policeman, in Saturday’s hostilities in Sultan Kudarat town. (From the Bangsamoro regional police office)
MAGUINDANAO --- The military and police are cooperating in locating two elusive cohorts of the 12 gunmen killed in a five-hour law-enforcement operation in Sultan Kudarat town Saturday.
Municipal officials and barangay leaders identified the duo as Hajer Mama and Jason Guiabel, who escaped as their companions fell one after another while exchanging shots with personnel of the police’s elite Special Action Force and the CIDG-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Monday commanding officers of intelligence units under him have been directed to help the CIDG-BAR locate Mama and Guiabel.
Uy said intelligence agents of the Philippine Navy’s 2nd Marine Brigade covering Sultan Kudarat and nearby towns have also been mobilized to help find Mama and Guibel.
Reports reaching the office of Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez, police director for the Bangsamoro region, indicated that Guiabel and Mama left their firearms as they scampered away.
Police Staff Sgt. Elenel Pido of the 4thSpecial Action Battalion under the Bangsamoro regional police was killed while four other SAF members were wounded in the ensuing clashes.
The attempt to arrest the slain gang members at about 3:00 a.m. Saturday went haywire when they shot with assault rifles the raiding teams approaching their hideouts in Barangay Limbo in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
SAF operatives killed Pendatun Talusan, Abdullah Talusan, Bembi Talusan, Randy Talusan, Abdul Mubarek Talusan, Khadafi Esran, Ahyot Degan, Abdul Patah Buday, Samsudin Ali, Bulod Adam, Butoh Minandang and Sangkupan Minandang in the ensuing five-hour showdown that sent villagers running for their lives.
Rodriguez said Monday the supposedly peaceful attempt by CIDG-BAR agents to arrest them was carried out according to procedure, but the operation turned awry when they resisted and opened fire with assault rifles.
Local officials and Moro traditional elders in Barangay Limbo told reporters the encounter erupted when the suspects shot the approaching SAF personnel and CIDG-BAR agents with assault rifles.
CIDG-BAR operatives and forensic experts from the Bangsamoro Police Regional Crime Laboratory collected six M16 assault rifles, a 7.62 Belgian FN assault rifle, a .22 caliber bolt-action rifle, a .50 caliber Barret sniper rifle and a .45 caliber pistol beside the cadavers of the gunmen.
In separate statements, the CIDG-BAR and the office of Rodriguez said the slain members of the “Talusan criminal ring” were wanted for frustrated murder, homicide, vehicle theft and collection of protection money from local traders and trafficking of methamphetamine hydrochloride, most known as shabu.
Rodriguez said the slain gunmen were also implicated in the fatal ambush from between 2017 to December last year of no fewer than 15 off-duty policemen and soldiers riding motorcycles en route to their hometowns for weekend breaks.
The culprits took the service firearms of the police and Army ambush fatalities with them as they fled on separate motorcycles after each attack.