Ex-Maguindanao mayor, brother killed in police ops
Credit to Author: AL JACINTO, TMT| Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2019 17:01:02 +0000
ZAMBOANGA CITY: A former town mayor accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of being a drug lord was killed along with his brother in separate anti-narcotics operations in Cotabato City on Friday.
Talib Abo Sr., who served as mayor of Parang town, was slain in a firefight at his home, while Disumimba Abo, a town councilor of Parang, was also killed in Cotabato City, according to police.
The former mayor had denied involvement in drug trafficking.
Members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the local police force were involved in the operations.
The two brothers reportedly engaged the lawmen, who were serving warrants, in a gunfight and were eventually killed.
There was no report of casualties on the side of the lawmen.
Duterte tagged the former mayor as one of the “narco” politicians after the latter’s name was included in the government’s drug list.
Over two dozen politicians, mostly mayors and deputy mayors, linked by the President to illegal drugs, had been killed in the past two years.
One of them, Albuera, Leyte, town mayor Rolando Espinosa, was slain by policemen while inside his detention cell.
Thousands of civilians, including teenagers and women, implicated in the illegal drug trade had been killed in anti-narcotics operations by the police after they allegedly resisted arrest and engaged the lawmen in firefights.
Others were murdered by motorcycle-riding gunmen.
Juvenal Azurin, PDEA regional director in the autonomous region, said the older Abo resisted arrest at his house in Barangay Rosary Heights 7, Cotabato City and shot it out with the police.
The younger Abo was killed in another shootout with the lawmen at his residence in Barangay Bagua Mother, also in the city.
Azurin said the PDEA and Philippine National Police agents from the ARMM and Region 12 were armed with search warrants against Abo and his relatives issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 16 Judge Alandrex Betoya and simultaneously served the warrants in three areas in Cotabato City — Barangay Rosary Heights 7, Barangay Rosary Heights 6 and Barangay Bagua Mother.
Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio, Cotabato City police director, said the former mayor initiated the gunfight at around 1 a.m.
The older Abo and his brother were brought to the Regional Medical Center where they were declared dead.
Azurin said the police recovered two hand grenades, assorted high-powered firearms and several sachets of shabu.
Another Parang councilor, Bai Amy Abo, was arrested after the lawmen found a cal. 45 pistol, shabu and bank documents in her house.
The suspected shabu confiscated from the older Abo was estimated to have a street value of P590,000.
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