Massacre suspect, 2 others slain in shootout

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  â€“ Police officers shot dead a key suspect in the Maguindanao massacre and two other suspected members of a gun-for-hire group in a shootout here at dawn yesterday.

Moktar Kindo, and his two alleged henchmen, Guiamaludin Buisan and a certain “Bad Boy,” were implicated in a spate of killings in the city and the  nearby towns in Maguindanao, said Senior Superintendent Rolen Balquin, chief of the Cotabato City police.

Kindo, an alleged member of the disbanded private militia of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao, carries a P250,000 bounty for his alleged involvement in the killing of 58 people, including journalists, in Ampatuan town on Nov. 23, 2009.

Probers recovered firearms and ammunition for assorted calibers at the suspects’ hideout.

“They are new to the community. They have just moved in a week ago at a rented house in Tanghal Subdivision, where they were killed,” Balquin said. 

Balquin told journalists the suspects reportedly pulled out guns when the police officers tried to arrest them, triggering a firefight.