Five killed in 36 hours across Maguindanao towns as police arrest the top suspect in the Shariff Aguak rocket ambush

Four attacks, five dead

Barangay councilor Saddam Barra was shot dead by two armed men on Saturday morning, October 24, in front of his roadside store in Barangay Macabiso, Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte. The gunmen escaped on a motorcycle in the confusion that followed the shots.

The same day, gunmen in a minivan shot motorcycle rider Alex Talungon with pistols from behind on a quiet stretch of highway in Barangay Nabalawag as he headed to the town center of Nabalawag, one of the eight towns of the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area. The eight towns sit inside Cotabato province in Region 12 but answer to the Bangsamoro government. He died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds, according to local officials and the Nabalawag police.

On Sunday night, October 25, Munsari Abpi and Usop Ugod were riding one motorcycle on the highway in Barangay Iganagampong, Datu Unsay, Maguindanao del Sur, when gunmen ambushed them. Both died instantly. Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson for the Police Regional Office Bangsamoro, said the attackers fled at once and left the two beside the concrete road.

On Monday morning, October 26, tricycle driver Hashim Buyogan Hadji Esmael was killed in Barangay Dicalungan, Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur. Witnesses told the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office that one of two men on a motorcycle shot him in the head as they came up to his tricycle, then sped off.

The arrest in Barangay Meta

At about 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, a team led by the Shariff Aguak Municipal Police Station with the Provincial Intelligence Unit, the Special Action Force and the Provincial Mobile Force Company, coordinating with the Datu Unsay police, arrested Toraipe A. Lusod, alias Aripi Adam, in Barangay Meta, Datu Unsay. Police had acted on tips from residents who reported seeing him there.

Salanguit said Lusod gave up peacefully once officers had surrounded his hideout in a secluded part of the barangay and told him several warrants were out for him. The team seized an M4 5.56 mm rifle with a 45 round magazine holding 35 live rounds and one chambered. Police said the rifle was among those used in the January ambush. Lusod was taken to the Shariff Aguak station for documentation.

The Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office listed him as its number one most wanted and number eight at the regional level. The warrants cover three counts of terrorism under Criminal Case Nos. 26-33502, 26-33503 and 26-33504, two counts of frustrated murder under Criminal Case Nos. SA-1639 and SA-1640, and a violation of Republic Act 10591, the firearms and ammunition law. Intelligence reports also tied him and a member of Dawlah Islamiyah to improvised explosive devices planted about 600 meters from the provincial police headquarters.

The January ambush and the 11 still wanted

On January 25, gunmen with assault rifles and a B40 rocket launcher attacked the armored sport utility vehicle of Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad "Mitra" Ampatuan Sr. in the town center as he rode with four security escorts. The rocket blast damaged the vehicle and left the mayor and his companions with minor injuries, according to the Philstar report on the arrest. The ambush site is less than five kilometers from Barangay Meta, where Lusod was caught.

Four of the attackers who fled were later killed in a clash with soldiers who first tried to stop their speeding vehicle and then returned fire. Police say Lusod and 11 others, including a local executive in Datu Unsay, planned and carried out the attack. In September the Iligan City Regional Trial Court Branch 1 ordered the arrest of 12 people over the ambush, among them Datu Unsay Mayor Datu Andal "Xyril" Ampatuan V, on four counts of frustrated murder and violations of Republic Act 11479, the antiterrorism law. The others fled after learning of the warrants, and a joint police and military manhunt is on.

Two Teduray men killed a week earlier

The weekend violence followed two killings of non Moro Indigenous Peoples in Datu Unsay. On the evening of Saturday, October 17, Joel Magtud, a Teduray leader and councilor of Barangay Mahantao in Datu Hoffer, was gunned down in Datu Unsay. The next day Cyril Tomas, a Teduray farmer from Barangay Limpogo in Datu Hoffer, was shot in the same town. His cousin Jayjay Guiaman, a member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, was seriously wounded.

Colonel John Michael Mangahis, the Maguindanao del Sur provincial police director, said the two attacks were unrelated and that investigators were still working out motive and suspects. Police have a person of interest in the Magtud case, whom he did not name, and a Special Investigation Task Group has been formed for it.

Bangsamoro Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs Guiamal Abdulrahman condemned the attacks in a statement and asked the police for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation. "The safety and security of every individual, regardless of ethnicity or cultural affiliation, must be upheld," he said.

111 killed since 2019

Supreme Tribal Chieftain Leticio Datuwata of the Timuay Justice and Governance, the traditional political structure of the Teduray and Lambangian peoples and an elected member of the incoming Bangsamoro Parliament, said the TJG has recorded 111 killings of Indigenous Peoples since 2019. Tribal leaders put the number at about 110 when they appealed to the families of the dead not to retaliate and asked the government for justice and better protection for tribal leaders and communities.

Wilfredo Fantingan, a tribal chieftain in Datu Hoffer, said communities feel unsafe and told members to take care when traveling and to avoid going alone. He said they were seeking justice, not revenge. A youth network for non Moro Indigenous Peoples, the NMIPYN, asked the Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission for an independent investigation of the killings and asked the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity to finish a proposed executive order creating a protection mechanism for non Moro Indigenous Peoples in the region.