MILF leader nabbed for illegal possession of firearm

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Authorities detained on Friday an abusive guerilla commander for illegal possession of a firearm he uses to scare neighbors in a seaside village in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

Tato Ibrahim, also known as Commander Tato of the Task Force Ittihad of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is now clamped down in the detention facility in Cotabato City of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Superintendent James Allan Logan of CIDG-ARMM said Saturday Ibrahim, an ethnic Maguindanaon, turned himself without resistance when a combined police and Army team arrived to search for firearms and explosives in his house in Barangay Tapian in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Barangay residents have long been complaining of abuses by Ibrahim, who reportedly fires a gun overhead each time he figures in altercations with neighbors.

He was also reported to have slapped in public a barangay official who tried to intervene and pacify him while harassing an unarmed villager.

Logan said they will use the .45 caliber pistol from Ibrahim as evidence in prosecuting him for violation of Republic Act 10591, which outlawed keeping of unlicensed firearm.