Army probes why wanted man slips past checkpoint

COTABATO
CITY -- Last week’s North Cotabato checkpoint incident” involving a
group of a Moro datu charged with rape and Army troops raised more
questions on how someone accused of a heinous offense can remain
scot-free which the court, the police and the military all need to
answer. Worse,
suspect Andi Montawal and his companions reportedly pulled off a daring
escape last week after having been disarmed at a military anti-loose
firearm checkpoint in Pikit town in the first district of North
Cotabato. No
one from among the soldiers that inspected them of their firearms knew
who he (Montawal) was. It seemed he had ordered his companions to embark
on their vehicle, ordered the driver to turn around and sped away,”
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said on Tuesday. Hermoso
said Army intelligence operatives later found out that the vehicle is
owned by the Montawal family in Montawal town, about 10 kilometers
northeast of Pikit. Hermoso
said some Army officials in Central Mindanao are aware of the rape case
involving Montawal, but none of them knew him personally, or has a copy
of the warrant for his arrest. The
soldiers at the checkpoint did not shoot his vehicle as it sped away
because there were so many houses in the surroundings and there were
other vehicles coming from the opposite ends of the highway,” Hermoso
said. Deeper probe Hermoso said the commander of 6thID, Brig. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, has ordered the commanding officer of the 7thInfantry
Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Pikit and nearby Montawal and
Pagalungan towns, to submit a comprehensive report on the incident. We
are also urging potential witnesses to help shed light on the incident
for us to really get to the bottom of it,” Hermoso said. Montawal,
an ethnic Maguindanaon, is related to the incumbent mayor of Montawal,
whose exact administrative identity is Municipality of Pagagawan, based
on its original municipal charter. ArrestThe elusive Montawal was first arrested by combined policemen and combatants of the 6thID’s now defunct anti-crime Task Force Tugis about five years ago while at the Violtan Pension House in Cotabato City. He
was then reportedly turned over to the court that issued the warrant
for his arrest. Nothing more was heard about him since, until he and his
followers figured in hostilities with a rival group during the 2013
campaign period and, subsequently, his having been seen roaming around
freely, accompanied by bodyguards. The
2007 rape case involving Montawal was transferred to the sala of a
Manila-based judge on the behest of the victim’s family, which
complained of harassments meant to force them into agreeing to an
amicable settlement with monetary benefits. Updates on the progress of the case were so scarce since the change of the venue for its litigation.Hermoso
said Army probers are now also trying to determine the identities of
Montawal’s escorts intercepted last week by soldiers at Pikit. Because
they were allegedly clad in Army combat uniforms we have to determine
if they are soldiers, impostors, or members of the Citizens Armed Forces
Geographical Unit,” he said. Coordination Chief
Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, police director of the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao, said he had ordered the precinct commanders of
Maguindanao’s Montawal and Pagalungan towns and the police director of
the province, Senior Supt. Rodelio Jocson, to help verify the checkpoint
incident. The
municipality of Pikit is under the North Cotabato provincial police
office, which is inside the territorial jurisdiction the Region 12
police office in Gen. Santos City. Delos
Reyes said he had also ordered the intelligence chief of the ARMM
police to disperse copies of warrants for Montawal’s arrest to police
and military units in Maguindanao and surrounding towns in nearby North
Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces. Delos Reyes said public cooperation is essential in locating the whereabouts of Montawal. Hermoso said the 6thID
will not hesitate to file administrative charges against the soldiers
that disarmed Montawal’s group last week if proven to have set them
free, as insinuated on social media by skeptics. How
can they just set them free in broad daylight along a national highway?
After the soldiers collected their firearms they talked to each other
in Maguindanaon dialect which the soldiers did not understand. All of a
sudden they boarded their vehicle as it turned around and they sped
away,” Hermoso said.