Maguindanao massacre suspect slain in shootout

COTABATO CITY— Three persons, including a suspect in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, were killed in a shootout with lawmen here on Monday dawn.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, city police director, said the slain massacre suspect, Muktar Kindo Santo, carried a P250,000 reward for his arrest.

Also killed in the shootout were Guiamaludin Buisan and a still unidentified man.

Balquin said joint police and military authorities went to a house in Tanghal Subdivision here where the suspect was sighted to serve his warrant of arrest at 5:30 a.m.

“They opened fire at approaching lawmen, triggering a firefight,” Balquin told reporters.

Balquin said the victims were implicated in a series of killings in the city and nearby towns.

Santo was allegedly a member of the now dismantled private militia of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao province.

“One of them was shot while in the act of removing a safety pin of a fragmentation grenade when lawmen barged inside the well-fenced house,” he said.

Plans

Balquin said the three had plans to execute a target in the city but he refused to name the would-be victim.

Police recovered one M-16 Armalite rifle, a .45-cal. pistol, six hand grenades and various identification cards.

The death of Santo came four years and seven months after the massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, that killed 58 people, 32 of whom were media workers, in what is now known as the country’s worst electionrelated violence and attack against media persons.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called the Maguindanao massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history, according to a Facebook page of the Maguindanao Massacre.

The same Facebook page said: In a statement, CPJ executive director Joel Simon noted that the killings, “appears to be single deadliest event for the press since 1992, when CPJ began keeping detailed records on journalist deaths.”