By Edwin Fernandez
COTABATO CITY – Military authorities here announced Saturday the arrest of one of the suspects in the murder of an Indigenous Peoples (IPs) tribal leader following a law enforcement operation in Maguindanao del Sur.
Brig. Gen. Edgar Catu, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, identified the suspect as alias Tagal, 40, and a member of the Dawlah Islamiyah terror group operating in the province.
“The suspect was arrested during a law enforcement operation in Sitio Pangayawan, Barangay Tukanalugong, Datu Abdullah Sangki town in the province on Friday,” Catu said in a statement.
Tagal did not resist arrest when the police and military forces presented him with the warrant of arrest issued by a local court.
Catu said elements of the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion, led by Lt. Col. Loqui Marco, have recovered a fully loaded .45-caliber pistol from the suspect.
“The neutralization of Tagal shows that government forces are determined to ensure public safety and protect the civilian populace from terrorists,” Catu said.
The suspect was tagged as one of the armed men in the Sept. 30 execution and decapitation of Ramon Lupos, a 60-year-old tribal leader in Barangay Limpongo, Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, on the eve of the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Month this October.
Tribal leaders said Lupos was executed by the gunmen who were trying to grab his cornfield right in his ancestral land in Barangay Limpongo.
He was listed as the 102nd IP resident killed in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao since 2019. (PNA)
