Suspects in murder of 4 in North Cotabato arrested
Breaking News • 05:15 AM Mon Oct 12, 2020
1
By:
John M. Unson
The three suspects are now facing multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder charges. (Pikit MPS)
NORTH COTABATO --- Local officials turned over to the police Saturday the gunmen who killed three women and a three-year-old girl in Pikit town Friday.
Capt. Mautin Pangandigan, Pikit police chief, identified the suspects as Salahudin Noh, Nasser Noh, and Abdul Amer Mamalo Bernan, most known by their aliases Tatukan, Selna and Ubak, respectively, were arrested one after another by barangay officials and local commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front after witnesses tagged them as responsible for the carnage.
The three men attacked on Saturday a house in Barangay Lagundi in Pikit, North Cotabato and killed using M16 assault rifles Sittie Abdullah, 58, Zenaida Mustapha, 36, Lagah Abdullah, 34, and the three-year-old Ashley Panigas.
The suspects are reportedly at odds with a close relative of the victims, a volunteer community watchman in the same barangay.
Four others, Ryan Abedin, 13, Raad Abedin, 7, Asya Abdullah 8, and Asria Abdullah, 30, were wounded in the attack, now confined in a hospital.
“The suspects were identified by one of the survivors that led to their capture,” Pangandigan said, adding that the survivor and several witnesses pointed to Mamalo as the lone gunman in the incident.
“Mamalo also personally admitted to shooting the victims,” Pangandigan said.
The police chief told reporters that "personal grudge" with another close relative of the victims, a Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) member, as the motive behind the carnage.
Pikit Mayor Sumulong Sultan said Saturday he is thankful to his constituent-barangay officials, to senior MILF commanders in Pikit, the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion and the municipal police force for cooperating in locating the suspects with the help of witnesses.
The government and the MILF are bound by security accords and two compacts, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, to mutually cooperate in addressing peace and security issues in potential conflict flashpoint areas.
Sultan, chairperson of the multi-sector, inter-agency Pikit municipal peace and order council, urged the police to build an airtight case against the three men, now clamped down in a detention facility.
All three suspects have confessed to their role in Friday’s atrocity in Barangay Lagundi during brief interrogation in ethnic Maguindanaon language by the MILF commanders who helped track them down.