Mayor in BARMM, others face 3 murder, frustrated murder raps

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A court in Basilan has ordered the arrest of a mayor, her husband and several others tagged in a deadly election-related gun attack a few hours before the May 12, 2025 local electoral exercise in Hadji Muhtamad town in the province.

The warrant for the arrest of Hadji Muhtamad Mayor Arsina Kahing-Nanoh, her spouse Nadz Nanoh, and their relatives Walihul Allama, Hadji Rahim Kahim, Lucman Kahing, Tudy Bayro and Singh Hassan was released on Thursday, August 20, by the Regional Trial Court Branch 2 in Isabela City, Basilan, and signed by Judge Joseph Wee Sit.

Reporters in Cotabato City and nearby provinces obtained copies on Friday of the common warrant for their arrest from ranking officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region based at Camp SK Pendatun in Barangay Making, Parang, Maguindanao del Norte.

The court’s order for their arrest is related to a case filed against them, based on a resolution dated July 2, 2026, by officials of the Regional Prosecution Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which cited their possible involvement in an offshore shooting incident that left pumpboat passengers Ben Bakil, Murasidol Abdurahman and Samir Jamiri Allil dead, and their two companions, Habir Alih and Saldi Alih, wounded.

The victims, all poll watchers and supporters of then mayoral candidate Hadji Jamar Abdullah Mansul, were together in a pumpboat on their way to a seaside polling site at Barangay Sangbay Big in Hadji Muhtamad at dawn on May 12 last year when they were attacked by gunmen riding speedboats reportedly owned by reelectionist Kahing-Nanoh.

Mansul lost his bid for the mayoral post of Hadji Muhtamad, defeated by Kahing-Nanoh, who was reelected as mayor of Hadji Muhtamad, one of the 11 towns in Basilan, a component province of BARMM.

Regional prosecutors in BARMM had stated in their resolution that the killings involved Kahing-Nanoh, who allegedly owned the speedboats ridden by the gunmen behind the attack, whose full names were listed in the warrant of arrest from the RTC Branch 2 in Isabela City.

All of them were charged with three counts of murder, two counts of frustrated murder and serious physical injuries, without recommended bail.

The relatives of the slain Bakil, Abdurahman and Allil had, just two weeks ago, urged via a formal letter President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to help them secure justice through the judiciary.

Officials of the BARMM government at the region’s capitol in Cotabato City on Friday took turns appealing for sobriety among supporters of Kahing-Nanoh and Mansul and urged both sides to let the RTC Branch 2 in Isabela City litigate the criminal cases against the mayor and her co-accused according to judicial processes.