Maguindanao massacre suspect killed in shootout

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Policemen shot dead on Monday a key suspect in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre and two other suspected guns-for-hire in a shootout at a residential area in Cotabato City.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, director of the Cotabato City police, identified the slain suspects as Moktar Kindo, and his two henchmen, Guiamaludin Buisan and another who was initially identified only as “Bad Boy,” all implicated in a spate of killings in the city and nearby towns in Maguindanao.

Kindo, an alleged member of the dismantled private militia of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao, carried a P250,000 reward on his head in connection with his alleged involvement in the massacre of 58 people, more than 30 of them journalist, in Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town almost five years ago.

Balquin told reporters policemen tried to arrest the suspects inside a rented house in Tanghal Subdivision in northwest of the city. Instead of turning themselves in, the suspects pulled out guns, provoking a firefight.

“One of them was neutralized while in the act of removing a safety pin of a live fragmentation grenade obviously to be hurled at approaching operatives sent to arrest them peacefully," Balquin said.

Balquin said the city police learned of the presence of Kindo and his two cohorts in Tanghal Subdivision from confidential informants and from intelligence operatives of the Maguindanao provincial police office.

“There would have been no shootout had they yielded peacefully,” Balquin said.

Balquin said the slain suspects had a plan to execute a target, whose name he declined to reveal pending further investigation. 

He said the city police is thankful to the informants that provided details on the suspects' whereabouts, including the exact location of their hideout.