DATU PAGLAS, Maguindanao — Three alleged members of a drug syndicate were killed in a firefight with government troops in Pandag town, Maguindanao before dawn Thursday, a military official said.
Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, said five high powered firearms were recovered from the site of the clash in Sitio Langat, Barangay Kabuling.
Cabunoc said gunmen opened fire on troops of the 33rd IB and Datu Paglas police out to serve a search warrant against a certain “Commander Grasscutter,” known to be a major drug pusher in the province, triggering an hour-long gun battle that ended when the gunmen “apparently ran out of bullets so they fled toward the marshland, leaving three of their (dead) comrades.”
The still unidentified fatalities were taken to the town hall to be claimed by relatives.
Cabunoc said Commander Grasscutter, whose real name was not made available as of posting time, allegedly supplies methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu to the Maguindanao towns of Pandag, Mangudadatu, Buluan and Datu Paglas, and the towns of Tulunan and Mlang in Cotabato province.