Farmer, 2 suspected cattle rustlers killed in Lanao del Norte gunfight

KAUSWAGAN, Lanao del Norte, Philippines – Three persons were killed last Monday, when armed farmers got into a gunfight with suspected cattle rustlers in Barangay Upper Libertad here, the police said Wednesday.

Senior Police Officer 1 Jeffrey Oponda, town police investigator, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone that several farmers were resting in a hut after the day’s work on Monday, when the armed men arrived around 9:30 p.m.

Oponda said the farmers were roused from sleep when their animals made noises as five suspected cattle rustlers approached.

The farmers – some of them armed with shotguns – resisted and engaged the armed intruders in a firefight, killing two men.

But one of the farmers, identified as 55-year old Arnulfo Tausa, who took a bullet in the chest, died. The two suspected cattle rustlers who were killed remained unidentified as of Thursday.

Tausa’s son and namesake was also wounded in the firefight.

Mayor Rommel Arnado said villagers should always be vigilant against cattle rustlers and other criminal groups operating here.

Arnado acknowledged that theft of farming animals has persisted in the town.