Notorious motorcycle thief shot dead in Kidapawan police operation

COTABATO CITY – Policemen shot dead a motorcycle thief, implicated in more than 20 heists since 2022, in a shootout in Barangay Kalaisan in Kidapawan City on Friday night, about an hour after he stole a unit owned by a barangay kagawad in the area.

Citing a report from the Kidapawan City Police Office, Brig Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office 12, said on Saturday that a police team in pursuit neutralized Winston Alamada when he pulled out a pistol while being prodded to peacefully yield and turn in the motorcycle of Ruel Quiamco that he stole early on.

Quiamco is an incumbent barangay kagawad in Kalaisan, a secluded area in Kidapawan City, the capital of Cotabato province in Region 12.

Macaraeg said the brief exchange of gunfire that resulted in the death of Alamada could have been avoided had he agreed to give up when pursuing members of the Kidapawan City police force cornered him at a stretch of a concrete road in Barangay Kalaisan while riding Quiamco's motorcycle.

The slain Alamada was under police surveillance for a long time owing to his involvement in more than 20 motorcycle thefts in the past 24 months, as reported to the police by local executives and barangay officials in different towns in Cotabato province.

He was even recorded to have led a group that stole at least five motorcycles in the neighboring Midsayap and Libungan towns in the first district of Cotabato province last year.