NORTH COTABATO – Policemen killed 10 people, including a municipal mayor in Maguindanao province in the Muslim autonomous region, in a shootout early Friday at a roadblock in North Cotabato.
Among those killed was Datu Saudi Ampatuan Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom, who was tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte as an alleged drug lord.
Dimaukom’s group was travelling in two vehicles when policemen manning the roadblock tried to stop them in the village of Bulatukan in Makilala town for inspection, but the passengers opened fire at them and a gun battle ensued. And when the smoke cleared, all the passengers were killed.
There were no reports of police casualties in the fighting which occurred at around 4.30 in the morning. Police officials said they put up the road block after receiving intelligence reports that the vehicles were transporting illegal drugs.
Superintendent Bernard Tayong, a provincial police spokesman, confirmed the killing of the politician and 9 others, whose identities were not immediately known. Several police units were involved in the fire fight.
Aside from Dimaukom, Duterte also linked several other mayors in Maguindanao, one of the sources of illegal drugs in the Muslim region and nearby provinces.
On Thursday, policemen also killed a suspected drug pusher, Eliezer Basilio Sierra – a native of Zamboanga City – in a fire fight in General Santos City. The 35-year old Sierra was also being linked by the police to other crimes in the city. Two of Sierra’s companions managed to escape on a motorcycle and is being hunted down by the police.
Police said it recovered six packets of shabu and a .45-caliber pistol from Sierra. (Mindanao Examiner)
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