GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Three suspected drug personalities, two of them sons of a former vice mayor, were killed in an alleged encounter with police operatives in a village in Sto. Niño town in South Cotabato province early Saturday.
Senior Insp. Juncint Aput, chief of the Sto. Niño municipal police, identified the slain suspects as brothers June Jay and Dennis Mark Cabantud, and Ronnie Magon, residents of Purok Malipayon in Barangay Ambalgan.
June Jay, 35, and Dennis Mark, 40, were sons of the late Sto. Niño vice mayor Bienvenido Cabantud and incumbent Ambalgan barangay chair Rosalinda Cabantud.
The police official said the three suspects were killed after resisting arrest and engaging the operatives in a firefight in separate search operations past 2 a.m.
Armed with 12 search warrants issued by Judge Oscar Noel of the Regional Trial Court Branch 25 here, Aput said joint elements of Soccsksargen’s Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit (RPDEU) intelligence division, and the Sto. Niño police stormed two residential compounds in the area.
The warrants, which targeted the compound of the Cabantuds and of another suspect identified as Mohammad Muto, were for possession of dangerous drugs and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Aput said June Jay and Dennis Mark fired at the operatives when the warrants were served. It led to an encounter and the wounding of the suspects.
He said Magon, 30, was wounded during a brief firefight with the operating team at a nearby residential compound owned by Muto, who reportedly managed to escape during the operation.
The three were immediately brought to the Luntao Hospital but were declared dead on arrival by attending doctors.
Recovered from Jun Jay were a loaded caliber .45 pistol and two large and six small sachets of suspected “shabu” while Dennis Mark yielded a homemade caliber .45 pistol , six small sachets of shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia.
Seized from Magon were a single shot 12-gauge handgun with two live bullets and seven sachets of suspected shabu.
The RPDEU listed the Cabantud brothers and Muto, who is currently the subject of a manhunt, as “Level 1” targets on President Rodrigo Duterte’s “narco list”. (PNA)
