Google map of Datu Paglas, Maguindanao
COTABATO CITY -- A suspected drug peddler died in a shootout with police agents following an anti-drug operation Tuesday afternoon in the Maguindanao town of Datu Paglas.
Col. Ronald Briones, Maguindanao police chief, said two cops belonging to the Datu Paglas municipal police station were injured in the incident and are now confined in a hospital.
“The police agents are now in stable condition,” Briones told reporters here Wednesday.
Briones said the shootout broke out during a drug sting carried out by joint elements of the Datu Paglas police office and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with suspect Thong Maido, 44.
Police said Maido sensed that he was dealing with a poseur-buyer so he drew his gun and fired at the approaching lawmen that injured Cpl. Winston Arellano and Patrolman Jeffrey Banzon.
“Maido was killed in the ensuing shootout,” Briones said.
Recovered from the slain suspect were a .45-caliber pistol, four sachets of shabu, marked money, and mobile phones.
Earlier on the same day, police manning a checkpoint arrested a woman after she dropped something from the vehicle she was riding while approaching a checkpoint in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao.
Briones identified the drug suspect as Jeramie Bal Raman, 30, a resident of Notre Dame Village, Cotabato City.
The police official said Raman was heading to Cotabato City from Talitay town, also in Maguindanao, past noontime when she dropped a sachet of suspected shabu that the checkpoint personnel noticed.
Raman is currently detained at the Datu Anggal Midtimbang police station. (PNA)
