GENERAL SANTOS CITY – An alleged member of a local terror group tagged as among the suspects in the Sept. 16 bomb explosion here was killed in an anti-drug operation in Polomolok town of South Cotabato over the weekend.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO-12), said Monday suspect Samrud Embang was slain in an encounter with joint operatives at around 4:15 p.m. Saturday in Purok 1, Barangay Glamang in Polomolok town.
He said the operating team conducted an entrapment operation against the suspect that resulted in a brief firefight.
Rasco said the operating team was composed of elements from the Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit-12, Regional Intelligence Division-12, Regional Mobile Force Battalion-12, South Cotabato Police Mobile Force Battalion and the Provincial Intelligence Branch.
Recovered from the suspect were a rectangular sachet of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, a caliber .38 revolver and PHP500 marked bill used in the buy-bust operation.
“He was a level 1 high-value target based on President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s narco list,” Rasco said.
He said verification showed that the suspect was a member of terror group Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP) and among the suspects in the Sept. 16 blast in front of a lying-in clinic in Makar junction here that injured eight people.
The PRO-12 described the AKP as an Islamic State-inspired group operating in South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos or Socsksargen area and is part of the local network of the Maute group.
Previously based in Sarangani Province, the group reportedly merged with local armed groups following the neutralization of its alleged founder Tokboy Maguid in a police operation in Kiamba town in January last year.
Police filed multiple frustrated murder charges against 19 alleged AKP members, including primary suspect Jeffrey Alonzo, in connection with the bomb attack here.
Alonzo was arrested in a drug buy-bust operation in Barangay Lapu, Polomolok three days after the blast. (Allen Estabillo/PNA)
