Extort gang head slain in Sultan Kudarat

COTABATO CITY , Philippines – Government operatives gunned down an extortion gang leader and arrested an alleged member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Sultan Kudarat Wednesday in a dragnet against extortionists demanding P1 million in “protection money” from the Husky Bus Co. whose units ply the Cotabato-General Santos City route daily.

Police said Saddam Sulaiman was killed when he and his cohorts opened fire at police and Army intelligence agents out to arrest them during a payoff in a restaurant in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

One of Sulaiman’s cohorts, Yasser Subho, yielded peacefully as policemen were to shoot him, too, while attempting to set off a grenade to prevent them from closing in.

Subho said he belongs to the MILF’s Task Force Ittihad, which is helping the joint ceasefire committee maintain law and order in flashpoint areas in Central Mindanao. – John Unson, Ramil Bajo