Raid on ex-ARMM exec’s house leads to meth seizure, vice mayor’s arrest

COTABATO CITY – A vice mayor was arrested on Monday (Sept. 9) after a raid on her house yielded P1.3 million in shabu, or crystal meth, in Talitay town, Maguindanao province.

Security forces about to serve a warrant to Mike Sittie, believed to be hiding in the house of Sedik Ameril, former assemblyman of the defunct Regional Legislative Assembly of the ARMM, missed their target and arrested instead, the former legislator’s wife, Janine Mamalapat, also the current vice mayor of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao.

Ameril was out during the 5:30 am raid on their house in Barangay Manggay, Talitay town Maguindanao, according to Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Azurin said the raid targeted Mike Sittie, alias Commander Mike, who had warrants of arrest for kidnapping and illegal detention issued by Judge Lacsaman M. Busran of the Regional Trial Court Branch 36 in Gen. Santos City.

Recovered from the vice mayor’s house was shabu worth P1.36 million, a Winchester caliber 30 rifle with ammunition and another 40 rounds of ammunition of Armalite.

Ameril, who used to represent Maguindanao’s second district in the RLA of the defunct ARMM had been on President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug list. Inquirer Mindanao/TSB