COTABATO CITY (PNA) – Police have filed murder charges against 10 armed men linked to the Aug. 30 ambush of a Maguindanao del Sur municipal police chief and his driver.
“The charges have been filed Thursday before the prosecutor’s office,” Major Reggie Abellera, Maguindanao police spokesperson, said in a radio interview, referring to the killing of Lt. Reynaldo Samson, Ampatuan town police chief, and Corporal Salipudin Endab.
Abellera said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (CIDG-BARMM) filed the double murder and frustrated murder charges against a certain ‘’Commander Jacket,’’ a sub-leader of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and nine others involved in the incident.
Samson and four police officers were ambushed as they were serving an arrest warrant against Commander Jacket in Barangay Kapinpilan, Ampatuan.
Samson and Endab were fatally hit in the ensuing gunfight, but the three remaining injured police officers managed to return fire.
Abellera said the group of Commander Jacket was also charged with damage to property and theft after they took the firearms and other personal belongings of the two slain police officers.
In the aftermath of the ambush, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. and Philippine National Police director Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. condoled with the relatives of the slain lawmen and visited the injured police officers at the Maguindanao provincial hospital.
Abalos also awarded the wounded policemen identified as Master Sgt. Renante Quinalayo and Corporals Rogelio dela Cuesta Jr. and Marc Clint Dayaday with the “Medalya ng Kadakilaan” and “Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting.”