COTABATO CITY — Acting on a tip from civilians, policemen tried but failed to arrest a long-wanted Maguindanao town mayor included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug list, during an operation in the upland town of Upi, Maguindanao on Friday.
Chief Insp. Erwin Tabora, Upi police chief, said police personnel, backed by the Philippine Marine’s 7th Battalion, went to the village of Blensong at past 4 p.m. after a tipster alerted law enforcers about the presence of Montasser Sabal, dismissed mayor of Talitay, Maguindanao, in the area.
“Apart from his huge residence in Talitay town, Sabal also owns a house in Sitio Burwagan, Barangay Blensong,” Tabora said.
Armed with a search warrant issued by a regional court for violation of Republic Act No. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and RA 10591 (Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition), the raiding team swooped down on Sabal’s house in Blensong but he was not around.
Instead, three persons, one of them a woman, were arrested following a search inside the house that yielded two sachets of suspected shabu, a live rifle grenade projectile, and three .50-caliber machine gun ammunition.
The raid was witnessed by Barangay Blensong officials led by chairperson Alfredo Belangbelang. Sabal has been in hiding since 2016 after he was publicly named by Duterte as among the narco-politicians in the country.
Sabal was dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman for his perpetual absence in office and failure to submit for several years the annual Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth required from government workers.
In past media interviews prior to his hiding, Sabal denied he was a narco-politician but admitted he was once into drugs while still a police officer at the National Capital Region.
He retired from police service and ran as town mayor of Talitay in 2013. On Nov. 18, 2016, a joint police and military raid on his home in Barangay Poblacion, Talitay led to the recovery of various high-powered firearms and luxury vehicles, including an armory beside his home.
He was not around during the raid led by the Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander and now Western Mindanao Command chief, Lt. Gen. Arnel dela Vega. (Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
