Ex-North Cotabato town councilor killed in anti-drug operations

Shootout (RADYO INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JONG MANLAPAZ)

PIKIT, North Cotabato – Anti-drug operatives from the Central Mindanao police killed a former town councilor here, arrested the son of the town’s deputy police chief, and seized high-powered firearms,
including one considered to be missing in the aftermath of the 2015 Mamasapano clashes.

Supt. Maximo Sebastian, head of the Central Mindanao Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force (RAIDSOTF), identified the slain former town councilor as Dindo Piang, whom he said, opened fire at lawmen during the 4 a.m. raid on Tuesday (Oct. 11.)

“He fired first, we responded accordingly,” Sebastian told reporters.

Piang ran but lost in the town’s vice mayoralty race during the May 2016 polls.

Sebastian said they also arrested Nasser Karim, son of deputy town police chief, Senior Insp. Sindatu Karim, during another raid, also on Tuesday.

He said police seized from the house of Karim four M16 rifles, one of which turned out to be among the missing firearms of the police’s Special Action Forces in the aftermath of the Mamasapano clashes, and two M-14 rifles.

Forty-four SAF troopers were killed in the clashes, which was triggered by an operation against Malaysian bomber Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan.

“We are determining how the (firearm) reached Nasser Karim,” Sebastian said.

In South Cotabato, Juner Coronado and Vicente Yungco, Jr., barangay chairmen in the villages of Koronadal and Poblacion, respectively, in Polomolok town were also arrested for violation of the firearms law.

Supt. Romeo Galgo, Jr., the Central Mindanao police information chief, said authorities seized a grenade, assorted firearms, and ammunition from the two officials during the conduct of simultaneous raids.

“The arrest of the two local officials by lawmen only showed that the government is not selective in enforcing the law, whoever or whatever his or her position or status in society. Anyone who violates the law is answerable, and our duty is just to enforce it,” he said.  SFM