KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 16 April) – A former police officer assigned in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is now the subject of a manhunt by the police in M’lang, North Cotabato for his alleged involvement in an illegal drug and car theft syndicate operating in Region 12.
Chief Inspector Rolly Oranza, police chief of M’lang, identified the suspect as Benjamin Giyani Wahadin, who had been hiding in Purok Santo Nino in Barangay Buayan, M’lang for several years now.
Oranza said Wahadin was dismissed from the Philippine National Police for his alleged connections with a drug syndicate.
On dawn Monday, Oranza led a search in Wahadin’s hideout where police reportedly found two sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu and a fragmentation grenade. But they did not find the suspect.
The police official said some of his men put up a road block along Buayan while the search was going on.
He said an unidentified man driving a motorcycle refused to stop at the road block and fired his pistol instead at the policemen.
He said his men fired back hitting the man. They brought him to the M’lang District Hospital but he died while being treated.
Oranza said they found out that the slain suspect was driving a motorcycle which he stole in Tulunan town, North Cotabato.
Police also recovered from the motorcycle’s U-box some tools, bonnets, t-shirts and keys, which they believed the suspect used in stealing vehicles.
The suspect’s body was brought to a funeral parlor in M’lang. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)