Cops, soldiers chase gunmen after Zamboanga Sibugay clash

COTABATO CITY —The police and military are guarding against retaliatory actions from the companions of three gunmen killed in a gunfight with soldiers and policemen at the border of Naga and Kabasalan towns in Zamboanga Sibugay on Tuesday, November 12.

The fatalities, Abdul Jain Sahibad, his younger brother Fahad, and Mursid Ansao Ahod, who died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the encounter. 

The older Sahibad was tagged in the October 17 abduction in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte of American national Elliot Onil Eastman, married to a Tausug woman whose family is residing in the municipality.

Radio reports in Central Mindanao on Wednesday, November 13, stated that the mayor of Naga, Rino Delos Reyes, suspended indefinitely since Tuesday the classes in all schools in the municipality, anticipating another possible encounter between the group of the three slain local terrorists and pursuing government security forces.

Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Philippine Army, told reporters in Cotabato City on Wednesday via text message that Tuesday’s clash in Barangay Canacan in Kabasalan erupted when armed men opened fire at soldiers and policemen dispatched to check on reports by villagers about their presence in the area.

“There is close coordination between Army units in the Zamboanga peninsula and the police in addressing that security issue,” Galido said.

Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey Masauding, director of the Police Regional Office-9, said that it was vigilant residents in the adjoining towns of Kabasalan and Naga who reported the presence of the armed group in Barangay Canacan, enabling police units in Zamboanga Sibugay and personnel of the Army’s 106th Infantry Battalion to mount the operation that resulted in the neutralization of the Sahibad siblings and Ahod.

Local officials told reporters four other terrorists wounded in the encounter were seen being carried away by companions who scampered away when they sensed that more Army and police reinforcements were closing in.

Galido and Masauding separately told reporters that a joint police-Army pursuit operation, assisted by local executives, is still underway.