COTABATO CITY (Sunday, September 7, 2025) — Policemen had shot and wounded an uncooperative member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit and arrested his accomplice after buying from them P2.7 million worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Barangay Ampao in Bacolod-Kalawi, Lanao del Sur on Friday, September 6.

Local executives and senior members of the multi-sector Bacolod-Kalawi Municipal Peace and Order Council told reporters on Sunday, September 7, that the wounded militiaman, Khalid Dimnatang Gubat and his cohort, Anoar Dedaagon Sumbi, are now both in the custody of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Sumbi is a barangay councilor in Sugud, one of the 26 barangays in Bacolod-Kalawi, according provincial police officials in Lanao del Sur.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of PRO-BAR, said on Sunday that the entrapment operation that led to the duo’s arrest was together laid by operatives from their Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, the Bacolod-Kalawi Municipal Police Station and the office of the governor in the province, Mamintal Adiong, Jr.

De Guzman said besides Adiong, who is chairman of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, traditional Maranao leaders and preachers in the Islamic community in the province also supported extensively the entrapment operation.

Municipal officials who observed the entrapment operation from a distance had told reporters that Gubat pulled out a 9-millimeter pistol and opened fire when he sensed that he and Sumbi had sold 406.9 grams of shabu, costing P2.7 million, to non-uniformed policemen in one area in Barangay Ampao in Bacolod-Kalawi, provoking a shootout that left him wounded.

Gubat was immediately transported by barangay emergency responders and policemen to a hospital for treatment.

De Guzman said they are to prosecute the two detained suspects for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 using the P2.7 million worth of shabu confiscated from them as evidence.