Ex-cop tagged in murder of cop arrested in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY — Personnel of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region arrested, on Monday, June 9, a former policeman who shot dead a bemedalled intelligence agent in the parking area of a mall in Cotabato City last December.

PRO-BAR director Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz confirmed to reporters on Tuesday, June 10, the arrest of 33-year-old Abdulpata Maguid Pantacan, who is wanted for the Dec. 1, 2024, murder of Senior Master Sgt. John Manuel Bongcawil in Cotabato City.

Bongcawil, who was residing in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte, was then a member of a PRO-BAR intelligence unit.

Pantacan originally belonged to a PRO-BAR unit in Basilan but was dismissed from the police service for absence without official leave after being implicated in heinous crimes in the province.

Like Bongcawil, Pantacan is also a resident of Parang, where PRO-BAR’s regional headquarters is located. 

Pantacan was cornered on Monday afternoon near a Catholic church along the busy Almonte Street in Cotabato City by operatives from various police units and personnel of the Cotabato City Police Office, led by their director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao.

He is wanted in the Regional Trial Court Branch 27 in Cotabato City for the murder of Bongcawil. The RTC Branch 27 issued on February 24, 2025 a warrant for his  arrest, without a recommended amount of bail for his temporary release. Macapaz said Pantacan is also facing a carnapping case in a court in Koronadal City, the capital of South Cotabato.

Officials of PRO-BAR, along with Bongcawil’s wife and other relatives, are certain that Pantacan was hired to kill him with a pistol while he was approaching his car parked at a mall along Governor Gutierrez Avenue in an uptown area of Cotabato City five months ago.

Bongcawil had received several citations for his role in successfully entrapping drug dealers and arresting elusive law offenders—many wanted in various courts for high-profile crimes, during PRO-BAR operations in Cotabato City and the adjoining Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces in the Bangsamoro region.