MILF commander killed, companion hurt in ambush

COTABATO CITY —A commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, who was popular for his extensive support to the government’s anti-narcotics campaign, was killed in an ambush in a secluded highway east of Cotabato City on Sunday, October 13. 

The MILF official, Norodin Alipulo Mama, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack that left his companion, Esmael Zainodin Balabagan, also a member of the front, wounded.

The Cotabato City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region stated in separate reports on Monday that Mama and Balabagan were riding a red multicab when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of the Sultan Kudarat-Cotabato-Datu Odin Sinsuat Diversion Road in Barangay Tamontaka 2.

The duo, both residents of Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte, were on their way to the MILF’s main headquarters in Barangay Darapanan in nearby Sultan Kudarat, also in the same province, when they were attacked by ambushers who had managed to immediately escape using getaway motorcycles.

Police investigators and intelligence agents of the 5th Marine Battalion and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division are cooperating in trying to identify the gunmen behind the atrocity.

Mama had supported the entrapment operations in recent months of police anti-narcotics personnel in different towns in Maguindanao del Norte that led to the arrest of 17 large-scale shabu peddlers, now detained and being prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.