6 behind murder of police captain in Maguindanao del Norte attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Six, not just one gunman as earlier reported, were tagged in the brutal killing of a police captain at the public market in Parang town in Maguindanao del Norte on Thursday, two of them policemen with master sergeant ranks.

Capt. Roland Arnold Suarez Moralde, administrative officer of the 14th Regional Mobile Force Battalion of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, was to disarm, all by himself, Mohaliden Ramalan Untal, whom he noticed has a gun tucked in his waist while at one spot in the market of Parang.

Instead of cooperating, Untal, a civilian, pulled out his gun and opened fire, provoking a gunfight that hurt them both.

As gunshots reverberated through the scene, five relatives of Untal, two of them policemen, joined the foray and took turns shooting Moralde, who was in full police uniform, until he slumped on the ground face down, an attack recorded by security cameras in business establishments around.

Untal and Moralde both succumbed to bullet wounds they each sustained in their brief shootout.  

Major Christopher Cabugwang, Parang municipal police chief, told reporters on Friday that the two policemen  involved in the atrocity had voluntarily surrendered, but declined to identify them.

However, elected officials and barangay leaders in Parang and in Maguindanao del Norte’s nearby Matanog and Buldon towns identified the duo as Police Master Sergeants Aladdin Solaiman Ramalan and Shariff Macarongon Balading, whom they said are both related to Untal.

Barangay officials and traditional ethnic Iranun leaders in Parang, two of them Islamic preachers, have also confirmed to reporters that three other close relatives of Untal, Bocari Ramalan, Uddin Ramalan and Pappo Ramalan, participated in the shooting frenzy, but managed to escape and are now subject of a police manhunt.

The sources, among them members of the multi-sector Parang Municipal Peace and Order Council, said there are witnesses ready to help the police prosecute the two policemen and their relatives who virtually coopted in killing Moralde.

They even showed reporters an authentic copy of the report of the Parang Municipal Police Station to the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police and PRO-BAR that explicitly mentioned the names of the two police master sergeants and three civilian relatives of Untal, who were tagged in the gruesome killing of Moralde.

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of PRO-BAR, on Friday condemned the murder of Moralde, who hailed from Luzon and was of Bicolano descent.

Tanggawohn has ordered Cabugwang to build airtight criminal cases against Moralde's killers.