COTABATO CITY – Police authorities announced here Saturday the arrest of one of the suspects in the killing of the police chief of Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, two years ago.
Col. Roel Sermese, Maguindanao del Sur police director, identified the suspect as Salah Tunda, 50, one of the top 10 wanted persons in the province and a member of the local terror group Dawlah Islamiyah (DI) Hassan faction.
“Tunda was arrested Friday in Purok 2, Barangay Poblacion, Ampatuan town,” Sermese said in a radio interview Friday.
Combined police and military forces served the arrest warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 15 against the suspect around 1 p.m.
“Tunda did not resist arrest,” Sermese said.
He said Tunda was one of the suspects in the ambush slaying of then-Ampatuan police chief Lt. Reynaldo Samson and his driver, Cpl. Salipudin Endab, on Aug. 30, 2022.
Samson and Endab were killed on the spot, while three other police officers who fought the attackers were injured.
Authorities said the other ambush suspects were Abdulnasser Sabtulah Guianid, Guiapar Abdulkarim, Johari Abdulbasser Guinaid, Phepe Saptulah, Abdullah Sapal, Bobot Kamsa, and Kamir Kamsa, all under the DI group operating in the province.
Tunda was the second suspect arrested by the police this year.
On May 29, members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao arrested Kamir Kamsa at a private hospital in Midsayap, North Cotabato.
At the time, Kamsa was confined at Anecito T. Pesante Sr. Memorial Hospital in Midsayap town due to an illness. (PNA)
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