Couple killed, daughter wounded in Lanao Sur raid

COTABATO CITY—A 9-year-old girl was wounded in an antidrug operation that killed both her parents in Maguing town in Lanao del Sur province on Tuesday, police said.

Senior Supt. Oscar Nantes, Lanao del Sur police chief, said in a phone interview on Wednesday that two members of the raiding team, both from the Philippine Navy, were  wounded in the operation in two locations in Maguing.

He said the raiders swooped down on the houses of Cairodin and Farhana Anto, Sultan Abdullah Pundugar, Baulo Anto, and Maguing Vice Mayor Gambao Abinal and his brother Hakim in a search for illegal drugs.

But as the Navy men neared the Anto house, Cairodin started shooting using a semiautomatic pistol, leading to a firefight in which he and his wife were killed and their 9-year-old daughter was wounded.

Weapons, ‘shabu’ found

Baulo, Pundugar and Abinal escaped.

Nantes named the wounded raiders as Seaman Jomar Agustin and Hansel Rebadonia.

He also said the raiding team found weapons and several sachets of “shabu,” or crystal meth, inside the Anto couple’s house and in the houses of Baulo and Pundugar.

In Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat province, a village chair, his son and a village councilman were arrested in separate antidrug operations, also on Tuesday.

Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, Sultan Kudarat police chief, said Ali Bigkug, 49, chair of Barangay Zenebin, and his son Mohiden were arrested after policemen found five sachets of shabu and two semiautomatic pistols on them.

In another raid on Tuesday, police arrested Mohammad Tasil, 36, a councilman in the adjacent village of Timbalayan. Officers seized a handgun from him.

The third local official targeted in the police antidrug operation, Butch Magango of Barangay Sadsalan, fled when authorities came to search his house.

No drugs were found in the house but police recovered bullets for a 9-mm pistol.