PEP TALK | Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, Bangsamoro police director, talks to police personnel of Sulu on Monday, to boost their morale amid the death of their colleague during a law enforcement operation on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of the Bangsamoro Police Regional Office)
COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao del Norte, Philippines — The leadership of the Philippine National Police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has ordered a continuing manhunt against former Maimbung Vice Mayor Pando Mudjasan and his followers who engaged government forces in a fierce gunfight on Saturday.
“Police operation continues against VM (Vice Mayor) Mudjasan. The long arm of the law will surely find him in the coming days,” said Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, Bangsamoro police director.
Nobleza, along with Brig. Gen. Giovanni Franza, commander of the Army’s 1102nd Infantry Brigade, and Gov. Abdusakur Tan, co-chaired the provincial peace and order council meeting in Sulu on Tuesday.
In a news release, the BARMM police office said the meeting in Sulu focused on beefing up and enhancing the operational capability of the police Special Action Force (SAF) troops there in combating criminality, insurgency, and terrorism, especially in light of the clash on Saturday in Maimbung between combined police and Army personnel and Mudjasan’s men.
The clash resulted in the killing of a police officer and the wounding of 10 SAF personnel, a soldier, and two civilians.
The government troops were out to serve warrants of arrest against Mudjasan for a murder case as well as conduct a court-sanctioned search of the house of Mudjasan for alleged possession of firearms and explosives. As Mudjasan’s heavily armed men slugged it out with government forces, the former vice mayor slipped out of the scene, according to a police report.
Nobleza said the manhunt against Mudjasan is also undertaken by joint police and Army troopers. On Monday, Nobleza visited police troops in Sulu to check on their morale.
He praised their “tireless efforts and commitment in carrying out law enforcement operations even at the risk of your own lives in order to maintain public safety and security in the Bangsamoro region.”
Earlier, on Sunday, Nobleza paid a visit to injured police personnel who were confined in a hospital in Zamboanga City.
Tan, in a statement, urged the people to calm down. “I call on the people of Maimbung, in particular the innocent residents of Bualoh not to unduly panic. The authorities are in full control of the situation,” he emphasized.
Due to the recent clash, over 5,000 people of Maimbung fled their homes. As of Monday, the BARMM’s Ministry of Social Services and Development counted 1,280 displaced families or 5,647 individuals.