Mindanao Armed Conflict

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – A high-ranking leader of the New People's Army (NPA) and two other communist rebels were killed in a series of encounters at Barangay Baluan, Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat on July 30, 2022.

COTABATO CITY - Soldiers killed a regional official of the New People’s Army and his two henchmen in a brief clash in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat Saturday.

Reports from the Army’s 603^rd Infantry Brigade and its mother unit, the 6^th Infantry Division, identified the slain NPAs as Ian Dela Rama and his subordinate-guerillas Valerio Lacumbo and Wilmer Dela Cruz.

COTABATO CITY --- Three terrorists were killed while a soldier was hurt in an encounter in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao from late Thursday until dawn Friday this week, reports from the 6th Infantry Divison and 33rd Infantry Battalion showed.

The hostilities erupted when more than a hundred members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked a detachment of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Tukanalipao and opened fire, provoking intermittent exchanges of gunshots that lasted for eight hours.

COTABATO CITY --- Three terrorists were killed while a soldier was hurt in an encounter in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao from late Thursday until dawn Friday this week, reports from the 6th Infantry Divison and 33rd Infantry Battalion showed.

The hostilities erupted when more than a hundred members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked a detachment of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Tukanalipao and opened fire, provoking intermittent exchanges of gunshots that lasted for eight hours.

COTABATO CITY - Gov. Jim Salliman and police officials in Basilan agreed to cooperate in solving the brutal murder on July 19 of the election officer of Al-Barka municipality in the province.

He called on the Basilan Provincial Police Office to fuse ranks with the Isabela City police force to hasten efforts of identifying the people behind the brutal murder of Ruayna Sayyadi.

The governor, chairperson of the Basilan Peace and Order Council, condemned the incident Monday, July 20.

COTABATO CITY --- A confessed leader of a criminal gang linked to the Dawlah Islamiya surrendered to the police Thursday.

Col. Jibin Bongcayao, police director of Lanao del Sur, on Friday said the 55-year-old Ombay Bagumbung Hadjimalik turned in an M16 assault rifle before he promised to reform for good in a simple rite in Maguing town.

Hadjimalik yielded through the backchannel intercession of units under the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and personnel of the Maguing Police Station.

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao – Police have launched manhunt against heavily armed men who stormed the market and terminal in Barangay Crossing Simuay here Tuesday night.

Lt. Colonel Julhamin Asdani, Sultan Kudarat municipal police chief, said police backed by Army troopers hunt down gunmen responsible in harassing Crossing Simuay market that left a marketgoer and three gunmen injured.

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao — At least four persons were reported wounded after gunmen engaed police in a brief firefight at the public terminal-cum-public market in Barangay Simuay here before dusk Tuesday, police said.

Lt. Col. Julhamin Asdani, the acting police chief of the town, said that before 6 in the evening gunmen on board five vehicles arrived in the area.

The gunmen surprisingly roamed around the public market as if they were law enforcers looking for someone that sent jitters among people in the marketplace.

COTABATO CITY --- Police agents shot dead a man they were supposed to arrest before dawn Monday for having killed a Muslim cleric in a bungled robbery attack in April.

Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were to serve Jack Macaraya in his hideout in Barangay Tuka Kialdan in Marantao, Lanao del Sur a warrant for his arrest, but he pulled out a pistol, provoking a gunfight that resulted in his death.

TACURONG CITY - Police authorities in the town of Pres. Quirino, Sultan Kudarat have launched manhunt against gunmen who executed an education official on Sunday.

Lt. Godofredo Tupaz, Pres. Quirino town deputy police chief, said in a radio interview Monday that Maguid Mangudadatu, 63, schools district supervisor for Central Buluan in Buluan town Maugindanao, succumbed to several gunshot wounds.