Hunt on for traffickers after deadly Tawi-Tawi anti-narcotics sting

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police and military units are jointly searching for drug traffickers who killed an anti-narcotics agent and wounded three Philippine Marines in a gunfight before dawn Sunday, August 9, in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.

Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua on Monday, August 10 offered a cash incentive to any informant who can help local executives in Tawi-Tawi, as well as police and military units in the province, locate the gunmen involved in the clash that left Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao agent Enfernie Jim Dayag and entrapment target Jimhar Jawadil dead.

“We share in the grief of the family of the slain agent and his co-workers and superiors in the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. We shall flex the powers of the Bangsamoro government in helping the police and military identify the drug dealers who escaped after that encounter so they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Macacua, presiding chairperson of BARMM’s multisectoral Regional Peace and Order Council.

PDEA-BARMM’s team leader in Tawi-Tawi, Abraham Kalim, said two personnel of the Navy’s 4th Marine Battalion and their commanding officer, Lt. Col. Richard Malabanan, who supported the entrapment operation that went awry, were wounded in the ensuing encounter.

Edgar Jubay, regional director of PDEA-BARMM, said their agents were about to frisk and arrest Jawadil and his cohorts after they handed over shabu during a tradeoff in the Mapanbubu area of Barangay Paniongan in Bongao when the suspects resisted, drew their guns and opened fire.

Gunmen from nearby houses then emerged and attacked the team involved in the entrapment operation, killing Dayag in the ensuing gunfight, which also resulted in Jawadil’s death.

Jawadil, a former member of the now-defunct Abu Sayyaf terror group, was known in Barangay Paniongan in Bongao, the capital town of Tawi-Tawi, for allegedly trafficking large quantities of shabu and marijuana in the province.

Agents of the PDEA-BARMM Tawi-Tawi team are now in custody of 270 grams of shabu valued at P1.8 million, seized from Jawadil and his companions before the deadly encounter.

Aside from the shabu, PDEA-BARMM agents, personnel of the 4th Marine Battalion and operatives from different Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region units in Tawi-Tawi also recovered a KG-9 machine pistol, an M1 Garand rifle and four .45-caliber pistols scattered at the scene of the encounter, apparently abandoned by Jawadil’s companions as they fled.

Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson for PRO-BAR, said police units and the office of Tawi-Tawi Gov. Ysmael Sali are collaborating in the search for Jawadil’s companions who escaped after exchanging gunfire with PDEA-BARMM agents, police officers and Marine personnel in the Mapanbubu area of Barangay Paniongan on Sunday.