War on drugs claims 2 kids

COTABATO CITY—Two children were among the latest collateral damage in the government’s campaign to rid the country of illegal drugs.

The children, a 5-year-old and an infant, their mother, and a drug suspect were killed after a group of suspected illegal drug traders engaged lawmen in a shootout in Rajah Buayan town in Maguindanao province on Tuesday afternoon.

SPO2 Mohammad Ampatuan of the Rajah Buayan police said the subjects of several search warrants opened fire and lobbed grenades at government forces, who were conducting an antidrug operation in Barangay Panadtaban.

The shootout killed Normin Tantong and her two children. Also killed was one of the suspected drug pushers, who police had yet to identify.

Ampatuan said the two other subjects of the search warrants escaped, although they were wounded in the firefight.

Rajah Buayan Mayor Zamzamin Ampatuan said the village of Panadtaban had been known as a trading area for illegal drugs.

Mayor Ampatuan said he was sad the suspects did not think about the safety of their relatives in the house when they fired at government forces.

He said information he received showed that trading of prohibited drugs in the village was allegedly protected by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The antidrug operation in Maguindanao had been intensified since the start of the year and had netted several suspects, including elected officials.

On March 30, Councilor Daud Rakim Guiama of Datu Anggal Midtimbang town was arrested when authorities found him inside the lair of suspected drug pushers Zainudin Musa, Bukatol Maliga alias Castro, and Katidia Paglas in Barangay Mapayag, Datu Anggal Midtimbang.

Guiama’s arrest came two days after a Maguindanao village councilor—who had been under surveillance by antinarcotics operatives for peddling and using prohibited drugs—was nabbed in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

Chief Insp. Achmad Alibonga, police chief of Datu Odin Sinsuat, said Razul Diocolano Imam, 29, a councilor of Barangay Banobo in Sultan Kudarat town, had not resisted arrest when Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives raided his house in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Alibonga said a sachet of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), with a market value of P20,000, and marked money were seized from Imam.

On Feb. 23, PDEA agents also arrested Rajah Buayan Councilor Dennis Sandigan Utto, who reportedly operated a drug ring that distributed illegal drugs in Maguindanao.

Utto’s arrest came after Fatima Daud Baliwan, a village chair in Kabuntalan town and the top suspect in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was nabbed by government troops.

Baliwan, wife of former Kabuntalan Mayor Muslim Usman Baliwan, was arrested along with her son and two others in Cotabato City, during which they also yielded several sachets of shabu, firearms and credit cards.

President Duterte had said Maguindanao was among provinces where narcopoliticians operated unchecked in the past.

Shortly after being elected President last year, Mr. Duterte named Ampatuan Mayor Rasul Sangki; Datu Saudi Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom and his wife, Vice Mayor Anida; Talitay Mayor Montassir Sabal and his brother, Vice Mayor Abdulwahab; and Datu Salibo Mayor Norodin Salasal, as among the province’s biggest drug personalities.