By Malu Cadelina Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY – Police in M’lang, Cotabato have intensified their hunt for a former police officer assigned with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for his alleged connections with a drug and carnapping syndicate operating in Central Mindanao.
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Chief Insp. Rolly Oranza, chief of M’lang PNP, identified the subject as Benjamin Giyani Wahadin, a discharged policemen who has been hiding in Purok Santo Nino in Barangay Buayan, M’lang for several years.
Police records show Wahadin is wanted for carnapping and drug trafficking.
According to Oranza, Wahadin was discharged from the Philippine National Police (PNP) because of his alleged connections with a drug syndicate.
On dawn Monday, Oranza led a search on Wahadin’s hideout, hoping to find him there.
Unfortunately, Wahadin had apparently gotten wind of the raid and was able to escape.
Police recovered from the subject’s house two big sachets of shabu and a fragmentation grenade.
Meanwhile, as Oranza and his men were searching Wahadin’s hideout, policemen manning a road block along Barangay Buayan encountered an unidentified man who refused to yield at the check point.
Oranza said the man even fired at his men, prompting the latter to return fire.
The man was hit in the exchange of gunfire, and was brought to the M’lang District Hospital where he later expired.
But Oranza could not say if the slain man had any connection with Wahadin, and only confirmed that the suspect was driving a motorcycle he stole from a residence in nearby Tulunan, North Cotabato.
Also found in the motorcycle were tools, bonnets, several t-shirts, and master keys, which they theorized were used by the suspect in his carnapping activities.
The body of the still unidentified suspect is now at a funeral parlor in M’lang town, according to Oranza.