By Edwin Fernandez
DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao del Norte – A wanted person was killed while his companion was hurt and arrested during a law enforcement operation in Barangay Tamontaka here Tuesday night.
Lt. Col. Esmail Madin, the municipal police station chief who led the operation, identified the fatality as Buto Butingkol, who was injured during an ensuing shootout and died en route to the hospital.
Madin said police operatives, armed with warrants of arrest issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 27 in Cotabato City for murder, swooped down on a safehouse in Sitio Siawan, Barangay Tamontaka, at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, but were met with bullets from the suspects.
“They resisted, forcing our troops to fire back,” he said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
The police were to serve the warrants against Buto Butingkol, Raizal Rajak, Musanip Butingkol, Pepe Butingkol, and Dave Pasandalan Midtimbang.
Midtimbang and Buto Butingkol were arrested, but they sustained injuries during the brief firefight.
The three remaining suspects are now the focus of a police manhunt. Butingkol died while Midtimbang is recovering from gunshot wounds at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center in Cotabato City under heavy police guard. (PNA)
