Barangay exec killed in CIDG-BAR firearm sale bust

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policeman seized four assault rifles and two pistols from a barangay chairman killed in an anti-gunrunning operation in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur on Saturday that turned haywire.

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, on Sunday identified the slain gunrunner as Billy Jack Ogca, barangay chairman of Upper Itil in Balabagan, a seaside town in the second district of Lanao del Sur.

Ogca and four others were to sell three M16 rifles, an M14 rifle, and two .45 caliber pistols, piled inside their white Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, to agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, but pulled out guns and opened fire when they sensed they were to be arrested, sparking a gunfight.

In a report to Tanggawohn, Police Lt. Col. Ariel Huesca, regional chief of CIDG-BAR, said four companions of Ogca, one of them clad in an Army uniform, managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the shootout along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Upper Itil.

Tanggawohn said the CIDG-BAR is now in custody of the firearms seized during the supposed tradeoff between its agents and Ogca's group that went awry.