Army sets up security blockade in Maguindanao

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao , Philippines  – The military yesterday established a tight security cordon around Barangay Bagong in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao in preparation for possible retaliations by an armed group that attacked a police detachment near an abandoned mansion there of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Village officials said four of the unidentified attackers were killed in the incident, which also left one policeman dead and another one badly wounded.

Local officials are certain that the group would return to retaliate for the death of their slain cohorts. Seven of the gunmen were also reported wounded in the encounter.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Hao, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said soldiers, backed by armored combat vehicles, have been deployed around Barangay Bagong and all routes connecting the area to the town proper of Shariff Aguak.

“The 6th ID is not taking chances. There might still be intrusions there by armed men,” Hao said.

Superintendent Alex Lineses, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said the slain policemen and his wounded companion, PO1 Mohaymen Ali Muhammed of the 1508th Mobile Group, were the first to notice the armed group that tried to surround their base Saturday night in Barangay Bagong, and, without hesitation, immediately engaged them in a gunbattle.

Lineses said although outnumbered, the policemen manning the checkpoint managed to outmaneuver their attackers by scattering in a nearby cornfield and traded shots with them in a 30-minute counter-attack.

“Our operatives are so vulnerable to enemy attacks so they are expecting harassments every now and then,” Lineses said.

“We are awaiting confirmation from units on whether the group that perpetrated the harassment were rogue guerilla forces or supporters of the Ampatuan clan,” Hao said.

ARMM police regional director Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Garcia Latag, said, the victims were identified as Police Officer 1 Dennis Datum Soropia who was killed on the spot and Police Officer 1 Mojamin Ali Muhammad who was immediately brought to the Cotabato Regional Hospital due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Latag said members of the 1508th PPMG were on their roving patrol Sunday afternoon when they encountered an undetermined number of armed men at the back portion of the warehouse owned by former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., at Barangay Bagong in Shariff Aguak town.

Said warehouse was the same warehouse of Andal Sr., in Shariff Aguak, where rocket warheads, other explosives and high-powered firearms were recovered by the authorities after the massacre of 57 people, including 30 journalists on Nov. 23, 2009 in Maguindanao.

Lineses, however, told The STAR that the 20-minute gunfight ensued in a close range exchange of fire resulted to the untimely death of Soropia.