Kin of slain Marawi police chief seek prosecution of culprits in Metro Manila

COTABATO CITY -- Relatives of the slain police chief of Marawi City want the victim’s alleged killers prosecuted in Metro Manila to ensure the safety of witnesses, officials said.The victim, Supt. Al Abner Wahab Santos, was killed in an ambush on October 17 in a busy spot in Marawi City.He was driving his car on his way to his office from the nearby Lanao del Sur provincial police office when gunmen on board a vehicle trailing behind shot him with assault rifles as they came close.Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Key members of the Lanao del Sur provincial peace and order council said relatives of Santos want the six alleged culprits, two of them ethnic Maranaw policemen, prosecuted in Metro Manila not in Marawi City. They are worried of the safety of potential witnesses to the crime,” said a provincial official, who asked not to be identified.Sources from the office of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. confirmed there are indeed efforts now to have the case endorsed to a court in Metro Manila.The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) had tagged two policemen, SPO2 Naga Racman Mamacol and SPO1 Salic Macabuat, as among the gunmen involved in the fatal ambush of Santos.Mamacol and Macabuat, both of Maranaw descent, reputedly have links with the drug distribution networks Santos dismantled after his assumption as Marawi City police chief about two months before his death.Local officials in Marawi City said the CIDG had filed corresponding criminal charges against the two policemen and their accomplices at a court in Marawi City.