Families of victims of the Maguindanao massacre display their calls at a memorial park in General Santos City where some of them were buried, during a commemoration ceremony. —Photo from NUJP
COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines — A tip from civilians led to the arrest of a police officer accused of involvement in the infamous Maguindanao massacre in 2009.
Police authorities in Maguindanao del Norte arrested in Parang town on Monday afternoon Patrolman Datunot Mangelen Kadir, also known as Datu Nor Kadir, 48, of Barangay Poblacion, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur.
According to Lt. Andres Samantilla, deputy police chief of Parang town, said Kadir was visiting a relative in Parang’s Barangay Making, a village just beside the regional headquarters of the Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
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Armed with an arrest warrant issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 in Quezon City, dated April 21, 2010, police officers negotiated for Kadir’s peaceful surrender at 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 3.
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Kadir, an active member of the Maguindanao del Sur police office, did not resist arrest.
Colonel Eleuterio Ricardo Jr, acting Maguindanao del Norte police director, said the police have received a tip from concerned citizens, including some relatives, about Kadir’s presence in Barangay Making.
“Police authorities were alerted of his whereabouts following a tip from a concerned citizen and appeal from his relatives for his peaceful surrender,” Ricardo said in a statement.
Kadir is presently residing in Barangay Talisawa of Datu Abdullah Sangki town, Maguindanao del Sur, where he is on assignment.
The government has offered a P250,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Kadir was among those charged with 57 counts of murder in connection with the Maguindanao massacre in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman of Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur in November 2009 that left 58 people dead, 32 of them media practitioners.
The body of a 58th victim was never found.
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Ricardo said that despite police efforts to locate persons with warrants, especially in relation to the 2009 massacre, the provincial police office only learned of Kadir’s whereabouts through the tipsters.
