Drug campaign turns village into ‘ghost town’

COTABATO CITY—Police operations targeting illegal drug suspects have turned a community in Matalam town in North Cotabato province into a virtual ghost town, as residents started leaving to assure their safety.

The raid on a suspected drug den in Purok Islam on Saturday dawn left eight men dead. Police said three of the slain suspects earlier surrendered to authorities and vowed to reform by signing an affidavit of undertaking in the Matalam police office.

But a resident, whose sons were among the suspects killed during the operation, described the police action as overkill.

Tima Dali said her sons, Aron and Maling, were summarily executed in their bedrooms. Policemen, who she said were heavily armed, awakened villagers with gunfire at 2 a.m.

“[It was an] overkill. My sons were unarmed,” she said. “We were treated like animals.”

Dali, however, said she will not press charges as she has no money pursue a case.

A special police unit from Central Mindanao police office in General Santos City raided Purok Islam, also known as Purok Quiapo, in Barangay Poblacion to serve arrest warrants against suspected illegal drug users.

But the raid turned ugly after shots rang out, sending villagers scampering for cover.

Gunfight

Supt. Maximo Sebastian, who led the raiding team, said the suspects resisted and engaged lawmen in a gunfight.

Family members of slain illegal drug suspects Abusaid Lampune, Bulaw Palti and Tahir Salipuddin, said their relatives had surrendered to policemen a day before the raid carried out.

“The police asked them to surrender only to be summarily executed one by one the next morning,” said Lydia Sakilan, a community leader in Purok Islam.

A father of one of the slain suspects said his son was a member of an elite security unit of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front

The father, who asked that his name be withheld for security reason, said it was his son who convinced his friends to show up at the police station and express their desire to reform.

“He was unarmed and he was not a drug user,” he said.

But the police denied the relatives’ claim.

Sebastian said the operation was legitimate and a shootout broke out because policemen were met with gunfire as they entered the community.

He said a police special intelligence operation confirmed the existence of illegal drug den where drug trade was happening inside Purok Islam.