ARMS CACHE Authorities say these are the guns found at the house of former Parang, Maguindanao, Mayor Talib Abo Sr. —PHOTO FROM PDEA-ARMM
COTABATO CITY—Police and antinarcotics agents on Friday shot dead a former mayor of Parang, Maguindanao province, who was on President Rodrigo Duterte’s “narcolist,” less than 12 hours after the Chief Executive called drug lords “psychos” and threatened to slit their throats.
Talib Abo Sr. died along with his brother, Disumimba “Bobby” Abo, an incumbent councilor of Parang town, after allegedly resisting arrest and shooting it out with policemen and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The former mayor opened fire at the law enforcers who came to his home on Gutierrez Street in Barangay Rosary Heights 7 with a search warrant shortly after 12:30 a.m., according to Juvenal Azurin, regional PDEA director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“He resisted and shot at our team,” Azurin said.
Police and PDEA agents served the search warrants against the Abos in three barangays in Parang—Rosary Heights 6 and 7, and Bagua Mother—where the brothers had residences.
Azurin said Abo’s younger brother, Bobby, died in a separate firefight, also after resisting arrest.
Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio, Cotabato City police director, said police rushed the Abos to the hospital but the brothers died on the way.
In 2016, the President came out with a list of past and present local officials that he said were involved in the drug trade.
The list included Abo, according to Azurin, but the former mayor denied he was involved in illegal drugs.
Law enforcers recovered two hand grenades, assorted firearms and several sachets of “shabu” (crystal meth) in Abo’s house, Azurin said.
A daughter of Abo, Bai Amy Abo, was arrested after law enforcers found a .45-caliber pistol, an undetermined amount of shabu and “suspect” bank documents in her home.
19th local official killed
Abo became the 19th local official killed since Mr. Duterte took office in June 2016 and launched his bloody war on drugs.
At least three mayors on the President’s narcolist have also died, either after shooting it out with policemen or by an assassin’s bullet.
In Tagaytay City on Thursday night, Mr. Duterte said he was ready to slit the throats of big-time drug dealers even in front of human rights advocates, who have been critical of his bloody war on drugs.
“I’m just warning [the drug lords]. For the remaining three years [of my term], the big fishes will really take a hit. And if you ask me if they will die, they will really die,” the President said during the birthday celebration of his former political adviser, Francis Tolentino.
“I won’t forgive you if you’re a big-time player. I will slit your throat in front of the human rights (advocates). I don’t care. I’m telling you, don’t do that to my country. I will really finish you off,” he added .
Mr. Duterte admitted that he could not end the drug menace during his term but promised to reduce it.
‘Psychos’
He was wrong, he said, to impose a deadline to solve the country’s drug problem when he ran for President in 2016.
“I was wrong because I thought that I could just fix it just like [in] Davao. Simple. The others I killed off, because there was nothing we could do about them. Those addicts, believe it or not, they are really armed. They are willing to … They’re psychos,” the President said.
He said he realized the gravity of the problem only after he assumed office and got hold of official records, including the involvement of top police officials and agents of the Bureau of Customs.
“If it’s like this, I could not really fulfill my promise to do away with drugs within six years. Impossible,” he said.
Abo’s death followed that of Mayor Alexander Buquing of Sudipen, La Union province, who was killed in an ambush on Oct. 1 last year along with his driver and a bodyguard.
Police said politics could be the motive behind the ambush.
A month earlier in September, Mayor Mariano Blanco III of Ronda, Cebu province, was shot dead by four unidentified men while he was sleeping inside his town office.
In July, Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas, died from a sniper’s bullet during a flag ceremony in front of City Hall.
Police said both Blanco and Halili were in the President’s narcolist.