Gov't forces kill 1, arrest another in Sultan Kudarat operation

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  -- Government operatives gunned down an extortion gang leader and arrested an alleged member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Wednesday in a dragnet against extortionists attempting to mulct P1 million “protection money” from the Husky Bus Co. whose units ply the Cotabato-Gen. Santos route daily.

Investigators identified the slain suspect as Saddam Sulaiman, who was killed in a shootout which started when he and his cohorts opened fire at police and Army intelligence agents tasked to arrest them during a supposed “payoff” in a roadside restaurant, Mang Gorio, at the town proper of Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat.

One of Sulaiman’s accomplices, Yasser Subho, yielded peacefully after sensing that policemen, led by Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, director of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, and members of the 16th Military Intelligence Company, were to shoot him too while attempting to set off a grenade to prevent government forces from closing in.

Subho yielded fragmentation grenades and an MILF identification card. He confessed to his being member of the MILF’s Task Force Ittihad, which is helping the joint ceasefire committee maintain law and order in flashpoint areas in Central Mindanao.

Balquin and his men recovered from the slain Sulaiman a caliber .45 pistol and several rounds of live ammunition.

A policeman, PO2 Adrian Ong, was wounded in the encounter.  He was rushed to a hospital.

The Star tried, but failed to reach for comment Von Al-Haq, spokesman of the MILF’s military wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.

The Sultan Kudarat provincial police set the entrapment with the help of the management of Husky Bus Co., the Isulan municipal police office and informants from the local Islamic religious community.

Seven people were injured on the eve of New Year’s Day when a powerful explosion ripped through an air-conditioned unit of the Husky Bus while entering the town proper of Isulan, after the management of the transportation firm ignored letters from extortionists demanding “protection money.”

The explosion also damaged a unit of the Yellow Bus Co. trailing behind, wounding its driver and conductor.

Investigators are still trying to exact information from Subho to determine if he and Sulaiman have links to the notorious Al-Khobar Extortion ring.

The Al-Khobar, comprised of rouge Moro rebels, has been blamed for bombing a number of buses and business establishments in Central Mindanao since 2005. - John Unson