5 PDEA agents killed in Lanao del Sur ambush

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Gunmen killed five agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in an ambush Friday in Kapai, Lanao del Sur.

Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the slain PDEA agents were from a dialogue with former drug dependents in Tagoloan town when their ambushers shot their vehicle with assault rifles while at a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Malna, Kapai.

Tagoloan and Kapai are hinterland towns in Lanao del Sur, where the PRO-12 and PDEA-ARMM had jointly neutralized with the help of the provincial government more than a dozen high-profile drug rings in the past 24 months.

Mijares identified the PDEA-ARMM fatalities as Kenneth Tabulo, Kristine May Torlao, Joy Amar, Binzo Dipolla and Diobel Pacinio.

They died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Mijares said the incident left a PDEA agent named Rachel Gentapanan and a non-uniformed employee of the local police, Normina Dicay, badly wounded.

Responding policemen and local officials recovered spent shells of rifle cartridges from one side of the highway from where the ambushers launched the attack.

Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., a senior member of the provincial peace and order council, condemned the ambush and urged the mayors of Kapai and Tagoloan to help PRO-12 identify the culprits.

“We mourn the deaths of these agents. We will help identify their killers,” Adiong said.

Adiong said he is ready to provide an earnest monetary incentive to any informant who can help identify the suspects.

Mijares said Army units in Lanao del Sur, which is under the jurisdiction of the 1st Infantry Division, are now helping investigate on the incident.