‘Commander Lastikman’ shot dead in Caloocan

MANILA, Philippines — A man believed to be a bandit leader in Mindanao was killed by motorcycle-riding assailants in Caloocan City hours after he was freed from jail on Tuesday night.

Datukan Samad, alias Commander Lastikman, of Pikit in North Cotabato, had just been released from the Bicutan jail at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City when he was shot dead while on a motorcycle driven by his cousin Ismail Ampatuan in Bagong Silang, North Caloocan at around 11 p.m.

Samad was held on charges of murder and kidnapping for ransom, according to city police chief Senior Superintendent Restituto Arcangel Jr. 

Police said they were verifying information that the victim was the same Datukan Samad or Commander Lastikman, tagged as Mindanao’s most wanted fugitive, who escaped from the Maguindanao provincial jail in 2012 by sawing off the iron bars of his cell.

He was rearrested at a videoke bar in Tacurong City in 2014.

Samad had been wanted tor drug trafficking, murder, theft and highway robbery.