Cops, soldiers in deadly encounter with massacre suspect cited

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Philippine National Police Director-General Allan Purisima issued citations to policemen and soldiers who killed a key suspect in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre after a fierce gunfight with a hundred gunmen.

Five policemen were wounded, among them Supt. Julius Coyme, in the encounter with the group of the slain massacre suspect, Daingan Ampatuan.

Senior Supt. Rudelio Jocson, Maguindanao’s provincial police director, said Purisima already awarded with corresponding citations the policemen and soldiers who were supposed to serve Zaldy Ampatuan the warrant for his arrest while in Barangay Kuloy in Shariff Aguak, but ended up trading shots with his coddlers, some of them armed with shoulder-fire B-40 anti-tank rockets.

So intense was the gunbattle that the companions of Ampatuan managed to cripple a police patrol car with rockets and M-60 machineguns.

Five followers of Ampatuan were wounded in the ensuing firefight.

The raiding team recovered a dozen assorted high-powered firearms, including two M-60 machine guns, two M-16 rifles, an M-203 assault rifle, M-14s, a .50 caliber Barret sniping rifle, a 90 RR recoilless shoulder mount cannon and hundreds of assorted rifle ammunition.