Drug rings behind Marawi police chief’s slay?
MARAWI CITY — Drug syndicates, whose operations may have been adversely affected by Marawi City police chief Supt. Al Abner Wahab Santos’ uncompromising campaign against illegal drugs, may have been behind his ambush last Saturday, government authorities here said.
A Bulletin source said that, before the ambush-murder, a local personality, who is known to wield wide influence, tried but failed to negotiate with Santos for the release of firearms confiscated earlier from suspected drug pushers.
But Santos apparently did not give in to the request.
Santos had also gained notoriety among the illegal drugs community when he was able to lead authorities in neutralizing three drug rings in recent weeks.
It was also said that Santos had been receiving complaints from city residents who said that shabu was openly being sold in some parts of the city “like it was ordinary merchandise” in parts of Marawi City, which is the capital of Lanao del Sur and a component of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
According to one of the initials reports raised at the meeting, the unidentified gunmen belonged to a big illegal drug ring that operates in this city and nearby areas in the Lanao region.
The scene of Saturday’s tragic incident was also the same area where lowly popcorn vendors, dry goods peddlers and a tricycle driver, all suspected to be “government informers” by their assailants, were slain in separate incidents.
Authorities also got a tip that a prominent local resident, a former ARMM official, has CCTV cameras fitted in his residential compound which may have captured footages of Santos’ killing and that of the alleged government informers.
Police are currently coordinating with the resident for the release of the CCTV footages for review by investigators.
These events led authorities here to surmise that Santos was a victim of liquidation in the hands of the drug rings he helped dismantle.
Santos was driving his Mitsubishi Montero back to his office from a conference with provincial police officials when gunmen aboard another sport utility vehicle tailed him and blocked his path, peppering his car with automatic gunfire that killed him instantly at past 2 p.m. Saturday.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman, alongside Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal A. Adiong Jr., chairmen of the regional and provincial peace and order councils, respectively, formed a multi-sector task force to ferret out the truth behind the ambush and bring the culprits to justice.
Hataman and Adiong jointly called for an emergency meeting here Monday for the creation of a task force and to compile initial reports surrounding the killing of Santos, a native of Pagadian City of Visayan-Tausog descent.
In past press briefings, ranking police and military officials had said that “narco-politics” had infiltrated communities in the 26-year-old ARMM. The ARMM is being envisaged for abolition and replacement by a new autonomous political entity under the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) now pending in Congress.
Monday’s “emergency meeting” here necessitated the creation of the task force to involve police, military and civilian groups from various sectors in addressing lawlessness in this city, touted as the only “Islamic city” in the country.
The meeting was attended by ARMM’s regional police director, Chief Supt. Ronald Estilles and Col. Roseller Murillo, head of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, which has jurisdiction over Marawi City and nearby Lanao del Sur towns.