Peace and Order

COTABATO CITY - Policemen uprooted on Thursday 12,000 marijuana shrubs planted in an area at the border of Barangays Danlag and Tablu in Tampakan, South Cotabato.

Brig. Gen. Jamail Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Friday the marijuana uprooting operation was carried out by units under the South Cotabato Provincial Police and the Tampakan municipal police force.

“It was a prompt response to tips by local officials about the presence of the Marijuana farm at a secluded spot in the boundary of the two barangays,” Macaraeg said.

COTABATO CITY - A gunman on Sunday killed with seven shots a barangay chairman in Sultan Naga Dimaporo town in Lanao del Norte who was overtly supportive of the government’s anti-narcotics campaign.

In a statement Tuesday, the Lanao del Norte Provincial Police Office said investigators are still trying to identify the killer of the 54-year-old Rudi Bitangcor, chairperson of Barangay Mahayahay in Sultan Naga Dimaporo.

Sultan Naga Dimaporo, most known by its acronym SND, is home to mixed Moro and non-Moro communities.

PIKIT, North Cotabato --- Gunmen shot dead a livestock merchant after divesting him of his money in an attack in Barangay Langayen here Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Tagum, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Friday investigators are still trying to establish who robbed and killed trader Jay-Ar Mamites.

KORONADAL CITY - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is now prosecuting a 52-year-old peddler from whom agents seized P88,400 worth of shabu early this week.

Naravy Duquiatan, director of PDEA-12, said Friday the detained Roel Gubaton Austria, who fell in a sting in Barangay Morales here, had been charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

TULUNAN, North Cotabato - Anti-narcotics agents clamped down a barangay councilor from whose house here they found P81,600 worth of shabu during a search over the weekend.

Naravy Duquiatan, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, said Monday they are to prosecute Renan Balmediano Pragados for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 using the shabu found in his house as evidence.

KORONADAL CITY --- A man who threatened to shoot people in a rampage here before dawn Monday was shot and wounded by a soldier for aiming at him a replica Glock 17 airsoft pistol that he thought was real.

The suspect, Ronel Roxas Millan, is now in a hospital, guarded by policemen and to be prosecuted for his offense that sent diners in an eatery along a stretch of the GenSan Drive in Barangay Zone 2 here.

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato - A barangay chairman was seriously wounded in a gun attack here late Saturday.

Nestor Rabara, chairman of Barangay Lower Glad here, was dining in his house when a man shot him thrice with a .45 caliber pistol through an open window.

He is now recuperating in a hospital, according to Midsayap’s municipal police chief, Lt. Col. Rolly Oranza.

Rabara is older sibling of Midsayap Vice Mayor Manuel Rabara, who got elected as member of the North Cotabato provincial board during the May 9 elections.

COTABATO CITY --- Suspected partisans on Friday blasted a fragmentation grenade at the residential compound of the newly-elected mayor in the politically-troubled Pualas town in Lanao del Sur.

Col. Christopher Panapan, Lanao del Sur’s police director, said Saturday no one was hurt in the attack, but the blast triggered panic among villagers in Barangay Danugan, Pualas where the residence of mayor-elect Amanoden Ducol is located.

Ducol and his relatives had told reporters they are certain the bombing was politically-motivated. They refused to elaborate, however

KORONADAL CITY - Gunmen shot dead three Moro minors gathering coconuts in a farm at the border of South Cotabato’s adjoining Tupi and Polomolok towns on Thursday.

In an initial statement Friday, the Polomolok Municipal Police Station said victims Rahman Jeorfro Sumapal, Nasser Maguisila Diamalo and Jade Jamal Abpit died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

They were collecting coconuts in a farm at the boundary of Barangay Polonuling, Tupi and Barangay Sumbakil here when men on motorcycles arrived and shot them with pistols.

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao --- Anti-narcotics agents seized P102,000 worth of shabu from three operators of a mini drug den entrapped in Barangay Awang here Friday morning.

Julieto Bansigan Obregon, Marvin Orchia Ramos and Melchor Orchia Ramos, were immediately arrested after selling their illegal merchandise to non-uniformed agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.