High profile gunman arrested in Maguindanao

SULTAN KUDARAT, MAGUINDANAO – Police arrested one of the gunmen who traded shots with lawmen here in January this year that left 12 persons dead, including a police officer.

Mike Igal, a follower of armed leader Pendatun Talusan, was arrested on Sunday in Barangay Limbo here by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), almost seven months after he escaped arrest in a police raid here, according to Major Esmael Madin, chief of the CIDG Maguindanao field office.

Madin said that Igal who was facing multiple murder and frustrated murder charges before a local court did not resist arrest but instead, surrendered when CIDG operatives presented him with three warrants of arrest in his home in Barangay Limbo here at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Igal had escaped when CIDG operatives and a team of the police Special Action Force were about to arrest Talusan, former village chair of Limbo, on January 23 this year. The operation turned bloody, resulting in the killing of Talusan, 10 of his followers, and a SAF operative. Four other police officers were wounded.

Igal managed to escape before the lawmen swooped down into the house of Talusan and eventually went into hiding.

On Sunday, the CIDG received a tip about his presence in the village so a law enforcement operation was quickly launched to arrest him.

– Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao