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The firearms of the Dawlah Islamiya members killed in an encounter with policemen and soldiers in Marantao, Lanao del Sur are now in the joint custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen and soldiers killed 10 remnants of the now defunct Dawlah Islamiya in an encounter in Banga-Pantar in Marantao town in Lanao del Sur before dawn Friday, April 17.
Top officials of the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region separately told reporters on Friday morning that policemen and combatants from the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade were to serve the 10 terrorists several warrants for their arrest from different courts but they resisted, sparking a gunfight that left all of them dead.
Four of the ten Dawlah Islamiya members killed in the incident are heavily-armed women, according to reports by local executives to Army Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of WestMincom, and Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of PRO-BAR.
The group opened fire first at the policemen and soldiers approaching their location in Barangay Banga-Patar, triggering the deadly clash.
The joint police-Army team tasked to arrest the slain 10 terrorists, among them Amerol Mangoranca, a ranking leader of the Maute faction of the Dawlah Islamiya and tagged as one of the planners of the bombing of Catholics during a mass in the gymnasium inside the campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City on Dec. 23, 2023, was led by officials of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Four Catholic worshippers were killed while more than 30 others were wounded in the bombing of the gymnasium inside the campus of the state-run MSU, the biggest public university in Mindanao.
Army Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of WestMinCom, and Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of PRO-BAR, separately told reporters in Cotabato City on Friday morning that officials of the CIDG and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, Brig. Gen. Billy Dela Rosa of the 103rd Infantry Brigade and Major General Yegor Rey Barroquillo Jr., commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, together planned the operation that resulted in the death of the 10 terrorists.
“We are thankful to all of the sectors, the local executives and the traditional community leaders in Lanao del Sur for supporting the operation,” De Guzman said.
The names of all of Mangoranca’s followers who were killed in the incident are included in the warrants for his arrest from different courts for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, arson, armed robbery, extortion and large-scale trafficking of shabu and marijuana.
The policemen and soldiers involved in the operation found two M16 rifles, an M14 rifle, a .30 caliber M1 Garand, a .38 caliber revolver, a fragmentation grenade and components for improvised explosive devices beside the cadavers of Mangoranca and his companions.
Gumiran said officials of the CIDG, the PRO-BAR, the 1st ID and the 103rd Brigade launched the operation, supposedly meant to arrest Mangoranca and his followers peacefully, after municipal officials in Marantao and members of their multi-sector Provincial Peace and Order Council, which is led by Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., reported presence of the group in Barangay Banga-Pantar.
