An alleged coddler of law offenders was killed and a shabu peddler was arrested in a joint police-Army operation in Barangay Tunggol in Datu Montawal, Maguindanao del Sur on Thursday, July 17.

Municipal officials said on Saturday, July 19, that a team of policemen and personnel of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion were to peacefully arrest Thokz Santuwa Adta in his hideout in Barangay Tungol but he and his companions, Boy Tamaso Mangayao and Jomar Inidal Dandungan pulled out guns and opened fire, provoking a gunfight.

Officials of the Datu Montawal Municipal Police Station and the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office said that Dandungan died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the brief encounter.

Col. Sultan Salman Sapal, Maguindanao del Sur police director, said that Adta, who is wanted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the surroundings.

Adta is wanted for multiple narcotics trafficking cases pending in different courts in Central Mindanao.

Local executives and barangay officials told reporters Mangayao, a known accomplice of Adta in his shabu peddling activities in the adjoining Datu Montawal and Pagalungan towns in Maguindanao del Sur and in nearby barangays in Kabacan, Cotabato also ran away but was eventually cornered and detained by pursuing policemen and soldiers.

Sapal said the policemen and personnel of the 40th IB who arrested Mangayao had confiscated from him a .45 caliber pistol and found in his trouser pockets five sachets of shabu. (July 19, 2025)