PIKIT, NORTH COTABATO-— Three persons were killed in this town in a span of eight hours, in two separate incidents in Pikit, North Cotabato on Thursday, July 23.
The series of incidents started at 2:20 in the morning when two suspected drug couriers were killed when they engaged in a firefight with the joint elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Philippine National Police (PNP) and Philippine Army (PA) who served them Search Warrant in Barangay Manaulanan, Pikit, Cotabato.
Police Captain Mautin Pangandigan, officer-in-charge of the Pikit municipal police station identified the victims as Mutalib Bulod and Asty Guiamalon Bulod, both residents of Barangay Manaulanan.
Pangandigan said joint elements of PDEA, PNP, and PA implemented Search Warrant No. 20-002 for Violation of RA 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act issued by Judge Lily Lydia Laquindanum, presiding judge of RTC Branch 24 in Midsayap, Cotabato, against Mutalib Bulod.
But the suspect and his cohort, Asty Guiamalon Bulod engaged with government troops in a firefight.
The operatives recovered one M16 rifle; one 5.56 mm magazine assembly; five 5.56 live ammunition; two M203 grenade launchers; one improvised shotgun; two hand grenades; 42 pieces of a small heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet containing white crystalline substance suspected to be shabu weighing more or less 10 grams with an estimated market value of P68,000; one strip aluminum foil, and one piece of bamboo sealer, from Bulod’s house.
“All of the confiscated pieces of evidence are now in the custody of PDEA 12 for proper disposition,” Pangandigan said
Another incident took place at around 10:45 in the morning where a certain Abdullah Hussain, 43, a resident of barangay Fourth and a school principal was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Poblacion here.
Hussain was the principal of the Dagadas Elementary School in Barangay Buliok, also of Pikit.
Pangandigan, officer-in-charge of the Pikit municipal police station said Hussain was traveling from the public market aboard his motorbike when the unidentified gunman appeared and shot him twice hitting him on different parts of his body that resulted to his death. The gunman, then, fled to an unknown direction. -Taher G. Solaiman
