Authorities cordon off a road in Barangay Limboin Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao where a police officer and 12 other armed men were killed in a five-hour shootout.(PHOTO COURTESY OF PNP-Maguindanao)
COTABATO CITY – A police officer and twelve followers of a fugitive were killed while four other police officers were wounded when a pre-dawn arrest operation on Saturday in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao resulted in a shootout.
Major Esmael Madin, chief of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Maguindanao said the twelve individuals were with the fugitive who was resisting arrest during the operation.
Madin said Datu Pendatun Adsis Talusan, former chief of Barangay Limbo, and five others were the subject of an arrest warrant for frustrated murder, robbery with murder, and double frustrated homicide.
Backed by a group of armed men, Talusan fired at the police who were assisted by troops from the Philippine Marines.
In the skirmishes that lasted for some five hours, Sergeant Reynel Pido, a CIDG personnel, and 12 others from Talusan’s side were killed.
About three civilians were also reportedly injured.
The house of former village chair Datu Pendatun Talusan who violently resisted arrest is cordoned off by the police for investigation. (PHOTO COURTESY OF PNP-Maguindanao)