MASSIVE MANHUNT. Police Regional Office-Soccsksargen chief, Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, orders Friday (Sept. 16, 2022) a massive manhunt for a motorcycle-riding in tandem gunmen who shot and wounded an off-duty cop in Pikit, North Cotabato, on Sept. 14, 2022. Macaraeg said the regional police forces should not let such incidents occur without swift resolution. (Image courtesy of PRO-12)
MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato – The chief of the Police Regional Office–Soccsksargen (PRO-12) ordered Friday field units in North Cotabato to help capture the attackers of a police officer in Pikit town.
Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, PRO-12 director, instructed Maj. Maxim Peralta, the Pikit police chief, to coordinate with colleagues in the province to arrest the suspects in the gun attack against one of his off-duty police officers.
“I am saddened by the incident. The shooting and wounding of our unarmed cop depict the assailants’ ill and treacherous tactics,” Macaraeg said in a statement Friday.
Patrolman Bryan Benjamin Singco, a member of the Pikit police, was fixing his house’s fence in Barangay Poblacion when one of two gunmen onboard a motorbike shot him from behind using a .45-caliber pistol on Wednesday afternoon.
Singco, 40, sustained a gunshot wound on his abdomen and was rushed to a hospital.
Macaraeg said the police should not let such an incident pass by without being resolved, even as he ordered police units to institute measures to prevent a similar attack in the future.
He also sees the need for the local police units to double their efforts against loose firearms to prevent more crimes across the region.
The PRO-12 covers the provinces of South Cotabato, North Cotabato Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat; and the cities Kidapawan, Tacurong, Koronadal, and General Santos. (PNA)
