Truce panel asked to probe clash with massacre suspect

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Local officials have asked the joint ceasefire committee to investigate Monday’s firefight in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao that left a key suspect in the 2009 massacre dead and five police officers and a soldier wounded.

Among the wounded policemen was Superintendent Julius Coyme, a senior staffer of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police.

Senior Superintendent Rudelio Jocson, Maguindanao police director, suffered a sprained ankle from a bad fall when he ducked for cover when they were fired at with assault rifles while about to arrest massacre suspect Dainga Ampatuan in Barangay Kuloy, Shariff Aguak town.

Dainga was killed in the encounter. Barangay Kuloy is a known stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and is covered by the 1997 agreement on general cessation of hostilities.

Local officials said Dainga’s group even managed to cripple a police patrol car with machineguns and shoulder-fired grenades.

According to initial reports by barangay officials, the policemen who killed Dainga and wounded at least three of his companions were securing the vicinity of the encounter site when more armed men arrived and opened fire at them with assault rifles and anti-tank rockets.

Chief Superintendent Noel de los Reyes, ARMM police director, said the slain massacre suspect is a relative of detained former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.

The former governor, along with three of his sons and several other relatives, is under detention and is being tried for the election-related massacre of 58 people in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town on Nov. 23, 2009.

With the killing of Dainga Ampatuan, authorities have accounted for 104 of the 196 people tagged in the massacre, said Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr., Philippine National Police spokesman.       – With Cecille Suerte Felipe