Peace and Order

LANAO DEL SUR --- State agents confiscated P6.8 million worth of shabu from a couple entrapped Wednesday afternoon in Marawi City.

Ating Pundogar and his wife, Norhata, were immediately arrested after selling a kilo of shabu to agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency disguised as drug dependents in a tradeoff along a stretch of national highway in Barangay Matampay in Marawi City.

Juvenal Azurin, director of PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the suspects are now detained.

“This is a big catch,” Azurin said.

COTABATO CITY --- Three were killed, one of them a grade school child, in an ambush at a residential area here at about 10:00 Tuesday.

The victims were together in a green Toyota Vios car en route to somewhere when they were attacked by gunmen while motoring through a busy thoroughfare Barangay Rosary Heights 11 in west of the city.

Col. Rommel Javier, director of the Cotabato City police, said responding probers have identified the two adults killed in the ambush as Norma Dalimbang Sapi and Ali Abdulrahim Tamal, who both died on the spot.

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities have tightened security in the city to prevent a repeat of the bombing on Thursday night that injured three residents.

The Task Force Kutawato of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division and the Cotabato City police are still trying to determine who could have perpetrated the bomb attack that triggered tension among the local communities.

Police Col. Rommel Javier, director of the Cotabato City police, said Friday blast victims Yusoph Talusan Kalim, Marguiana Kalim and Azmad Cader were immediately rushed to a hospital for treatment.

COTABATO CITY --- Police agents finally located in Davao City an elusive rape suspect from Zamboanga Del Sur, wanted since 2007.

Domingo Romaquira, 52, was nabbed by combined personnel of the Criminal Investigation Group from Zamboanga del Sur and members of the Davao City police in Marilog District in Davao City, acting on tips by relatives.

COTABATO CITY --- A police major based in Zamboanga City and four subordinates are now detained for attempting to extort P90,000 from a merchant they threatened to charge with possession of illegal drugs without basis.

Major Orlyn Leyte, acting chief of the Zamboanga City Police Station 9, and accomplices, Sergeants Hehenio Salvador and Asser Abdulkarim and Corporals Ismael Sasapan and Juman Arabani, are to be prosecuted for violation of the Republic Act 3019, also known as the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act.

MAGUINDANAO ---- A member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was killed in a gunfight Monday with a group fashioned from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The slain MILF member, Adam Abe, was declared dead on arrival at a government hospital in Cotabato City where he was rushed for treatment of gunshot wounds.

Abe was in an MILF group that clashed with gunmen belonging to the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Barangay Damabalas in Talayan town in Maguindanao on Monday.

COTABATO CITY --- The police detained a 24-year-old man who raped and killed an eight-year-old girl before dawn Wednesday in Barangay Kaumpurnah in Isabela City, Basilan.

Personnel of the Isabela City police and barangay officials managed to immediately arrest the culprit, Momar Sariul, who had confessed to his having raped the child.

Sariul had admitted having strangled the child to her death after the rape.

KORONADAL CITY --- Five large-scale shabu dealers, three of them reportedly sharing fractions of earnings to the New People’s Army, got arrested one after another in the past seven days.

Naravy Duquiatan, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for Region 12, said Wednesday suspects Jocento Aro, Cyrus Butigan, Jomar Mangakoy and Ron Carlo Dayao, are now detained, awaiting prosecution.

COTABATO CITY --- Police operatives arrested four coddlers of two men wanted for heinous crimes following a brief shootout in Barangay Liong in Barira, Maguindanao on Sunday morning.

Personnel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are now in custody of Ibrahim Ayunan, Salik Macugar, Norhamin Macugar and Tatah Macugar from whom they seized two .45 caliber pistols.

COTABATO CITY --- State agents shot dead Wednesday in Zamboanga City an Abu Sayyaf terrorist wanted for the abduction of more than 20 people, a number of them foreigners.

The slain Abu Sayyaf member, Arrassid Adjing Hallissam, was also tagged in the 2015 bombing of a bus terminal in Barangay Guiwan in Zamboanga City that killed two commuters and hurt 52 others.

Combined police and military operatives were to arrest Hallissam, also known as Guru Ara, in his hideout in Barangay San Roque in Zamboanga City at about 3:00 a.m. Tuesday, but killed him instead when he resisted.