Cops kill gun attack suspect in Cotabato shootout

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A police team killed in a shootout a gunman who seriously wounded two Moro siblings in a gun attack about 30 minutes before on Friday morning, January 3, in Barangay Macabual in Tugunan town in Cotabato province.

Tugunan is one of the eight newly-created towns under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao but are inside the territory of Cotabato province in Region 12.

Brig. Gen Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and officials of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office separately told reporters on Saturday, January 4, that policemen tried to arrest Ali Sansaluna, who, instead of yielding peacefully, pulled out his .45 caliber pistol and opened fire.

The policemen whom he repeatedly shot with his pistol returned fire, killing him instantly.

Investigators in the Pikit Municipal Police Station in Pikit town in Cotabato, where barangays in what is now Tugunan town originally belonged, stated in their initial report to Col. Gilbert Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, that Sansaluna first shot and seriously wounded the Moro siblings Thongz and Sahdin in attack in Barangay Macabual earlier on Friday.

Policemen and barangay tanods who responded to the incident cornered him after a brief chase and asked him to yield, but he resisted, provoking a gunfight that led to his death.

Officials of the Pikit municipal police immediately turned over Sansaluna’s cadaver to his relatives in Barangay Simone in nearby Kabacan town, also in Cotabato province.