COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen arrested at a checkpoint on Monday, July 13, the gunman who had killed a tricycle driver and wounded an off-duty policeman and a minor in an ambush in Barangay Poblacion 5 in this city the day before.
The 29-year-old Jamir Diduanda Sailon, now detained at the Cotabato City Police Station 2, had confessed to Mayor Bruce Matabalao, in the presence of reporters, that he perpetrated the atrocity, aiming to kill the ethnic Iranun Police Cpl. Titing Kauring, who was wounded in the incident. Sailon is a resident of Barangay Sta. Maria in Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat.
The attack left an innocent tricycle driver, Bassir Gapor, dead and a male adolescent, whom police officials identified only as Yusseff because if he was a minor, wounded.
Kauring was riding a motorcycle, trailing behind Gapor’s tricycle at Jose Lim, Sr Street in Barangay Poblacion 5, when he was repeatedly shot with a .45 caliber pistol by Sailon, wounding him slightly in the middle torso. Gapor, who was hit by stray bullets then, was declared dead on arrival by doctors at a hospital where he was brought by policemen for treatment.
Col. Jibin Bongcayao, director of the Cotabato City Police Office, told reporters on Tuesday that the wounded Kauring and the male high school student are now both out of danger.
Sailon had told Matabalao, who, as mayor, is also chairperson of the multi-sector Cotabato City Peace and Order Council, that he planned to kill Kauring for having an illicit affair with his wife.
Local executives said it was the vigilant Moro and non-Moro residents in Barangay Poblacion 9 who informed Cotabato City police officials and Matabalao about Sailon's presence in the area and his supposed return, using a motorcycle, to his hometown, about 100 kilometers away, enabling policemen and personnel of the 6th Marine Battalion to promptly block his route and arrest him.
Policemen had confiscated during the checkpoint operation Sailon's .45 caliber pistol and his motorcycle.
Matabalao and Bongcayao separately told reporters on Tuesday that they are grateful to the residents of Cotabato City who were instrumental in the arrest of Sailon.