Another suspect in murder of police lieutenant in Maguindanao arrested

COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines – Police authorities announced on Saturday the arrest of one of the suspects in the killing of a police lieutenant in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur two years ago.

Colonel Roel Sermese, Maguindanao del Sur police director, identified the suspect as Salah Tunda, 50, one of the 10 wanted persons in the province, and a member of Dawlah Islamiyah-Hassan Group, was arrested on Friday in Purok 2, Barangay Poblacion, Ampatuan town.

Sermese said combined forces of Maguindanao police and Ampatuan municipal police station backed by soldiers from the 40th Infantry Battalion served the arrest warrant issued by Judge Annabelle Piang of Regional Trial Court Branch 15 at about 1 p.m.

Tunda did not resist arrest.

READ: Suspect in murder of Maguindanao Sur police officer nabbed in Cotabato

Sermese said Tunda was one of the suspects in the ambush and death of Police Lieutenant Reynaldo Samson, 40, then Ampatuan police chief, and his driver, Cpl. Salipudin Endab, on August 30, 2022.

Samson and Endab were killed on the spot, while three other police officers who fought the attackers were injured.

Police said the gunmen belonged to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Authorities said the ambush was perpetrated by Abdulnasser Sabtulah Guianid, Guiapar Abdulkarim, Sala Tunda, Johari Abdulbasser Guinaid, Phepe Saptulah, Abdulrah Sapal, Bobot Kamsa, and Kamir Kamsa (Kamid Kambal), all under the Kagui Karialan faction of the BIFF.

Tunda was the second suspect in the ambush of Samson arrested by police authorities this year.

On May 29, members of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), arrested inside a private hospital in Cotabato province Kamid Kambal of Barangay Lapok, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur.

Lt. Colonel Ariel Huesca, CIDG-BARMM regional chief, said Kambal was arrested while confined at the Anecito T. Pesante Sr. Memorial Hospital in Midsayap, Cotabato due to an illness.

A security specialist and a former member of the elite Presidential Security Group (PSG), the 40-year-old Samson was barely a year as police chief of the Maguindanao town when he was ambushed and killed as he was out to serve an arrest warrant for a resident in the area.

Samson was assigned in Ampatuan only on Sept. 21, 2021. Before that, he was deputy police chief of the town of Parang, also in Maguindanao.

Samson, a Bicolano, was a faculty in the graduate schools of Philippine Christian University and of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa while also serving as a lecturer for police recruits and for those taking specialized courses given by the Philippine Public Safety College and the Specialized Training Group of the Philippine National Police.