Soldiers capture wanted coddler of law offenders

COTABATO CITY - Soldiers shot and wounded in an operation Sunday in nearby South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur a gunman wanted for criminal cases and harboring cattle thieves and extortionists.

The Teduray tribesman Romeo Kafitan, immediately yielded, both hands raised, when he sensed that his hideout in the secluded Sitio Kinemkem in Barangay Romongaob had been surrounded by personnel of the 57^th Infantry Battalion, dispatched to check his reported presence in the area.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said Tuesday Kafitan was immediately turned over to the South Upi Municipal Police Station.

Kafitan, who is wanted for multiple murder, extortion, cattle rustling and robbery cases pending in different courts, sustained a superficial bullet wound in the forehead as he traded shots with soldiers approaching his hideout before he turned himself in.

Traditional Teduray community elders said Tuesday Kafitan had, occasionally, provided sanctuary to wanted local terrorists belonging to groups operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and armed groups that collected “protection money” from hapless farmers in hinterlands in South Upi and in Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat.

Rillera said soldiers had confiscated from Kafitan an M16 rifle, an M14 rifle and a .45 caliber pistol.