Killing three militants linked to the Islamic State group in a failed escape attempt from a maximum security facility in the capital of the Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police killed three detained militants linked to the Islamic State group after they staged a jail rampage Sunday that saw a police officer stabbed and a former opposition senator briefly held hostage in a failed escape attempt from the maximum-security facility in the police headquarters in the capital, police said.
The police chief said that the former senator was in good condition and was taken to a hospital for a checkup.
One of the three inmates stabbed a police officer who was delivering breakfast after dawn in an open area, where inmates can exercise outdoors. A police officer in a sentry tower fired warning shots, and then shot and killed two of the prisoners, including Abu Sayyaf commander Idang Susukan, when they refused to yield, police said.
The third inmates ran to de Lima’s cell after the two died, blindfolding her and aiming a blunt object at her chest. The inmate demanded a helicopter for him to escape during a brief negotiation and later asked for water, giving a police officer a chance to shoot him while handing him water, Abalos said.
Susukan, who had been blamed for dozens of killings and beheadings of hostages, including foreign tourists, and other terrorist attacks was arrested two years ago in southern Davao city.
The two other men in custody were suspected of being part of a Muslim militant group that has been blamed for bomb attacks in the country’s south. They were arrested in 2019 in suburban Quezon city in the capital region, and were facing non-bailable charges like Susukan, police officials said.
The United States and Philippines have listed the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization, and at least a number of its members have joined the Islamic State group.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/09/1127723627/philippines-police-kill-3-inmates-jail-rampage-ex-senator-held-hostage
De Lima, the stabbed former human rights commissioner, tells the AP: “It’s tough, but I can manage,” she tells AP
The police officer who was stabbed was in a serious condition, according to Azurin. Police said another prisoner was injured in the rampage.
De Lima told opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who visited her, that she feared she would be killed during the incident. “Why would I die now when I may get freed soon?” de Lima told her what she wanted to hear. “And something inside her told her to stay still.”
Some U.S. legislators and U.N. rights experts have called for the release of De Lima who has been imprisoned for over a year.
Duterte, who has insisted on de Lima’s guilt, stepped down from office on June 30 at the end of his turbulent six-year term and was succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of a former dictator who was ousted in a 1986 pro-democracy uprising.
deLua rejected the president’s offer to let her go to a different facility but he promised to make certain that it wouldn’t happen again.
In an interview she gave to The Associated Press in the jail compound, de Lima said she was unperturbed by the years of captivity in the old facility which was lined with concrete walls and rusty barbed wire. The jail guards were armed with assault rifles.
“I’m a fighter,” the bespectacled former human rights commission chief and justice secretary told an AP journalist then. “It’s tough, but I can manage.”
The case of Ferdy Sambo in the midst of a brazen attack on a local police officer in MANILA, the Central Philippines
The trial of a former Indonesian police general charged with orchestrating the murder of his bodyguard started at a Jakarta court on Monday, in a case that has put a spotlight on the country’s police force.
In a country with high distrust of police, the case of Ferdy Sambo, an ex-Inspector General at the national police, has grabbed the public’s attention.
The bodyguard was killed in a gunfight with another officer at a Jakarta residence on July 8.
There were claims made that the bodyguard had been tortured, leading to a second autopsy which saw the police version of the events change.
In court on Monday, a prosecutor alleged Sambo had ordered one of his officers to shoot Hutabarat, before putting a final bullet in the back of his head and firing his gun into the wall to create the appearance of a shootout.
The news conference that Sambo gave last week said that he ordered Hutabarat not to be shot.
The police force is under pressure due to a deadly soccer incident that killed more than 130 people and it is the least trusted of Indonesia’s law enforcement bodies.
MANILA, Philippines — Gunmen in military uniforms fatally shot a governor and five civilians on Saturday while the provincial leader was meeting villagers at his home in the central Philippines, in the latest brazen assault on local politicians in the country, police said.
Last month, four of Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr.’s bodyguards died in an attack on their convoy. Police said that one of the suspects was killed in a fight.
A woman killed in the street: “She’s going to hell,” says the mayor of Aparri town, northern Nueva Vizcaya
She demanded justice and said her husband “did not deserve that kind of death. He was working for his department on a Saturday.
A total of 10 suspects were seen fleeing the scene and later abandoned the SUVs, police said. Police set up security checkpoints and launched a province-wide search for the suspects.
The mid-morning attack occurred as impoverished villagers were gathered in front of Degamo’s house for medical and other aid.
Marcos said without elaborating that authorities had gathered “much information and now have a clear direction on how to proceed to bring to justice those behind this killing.” He addressed the mastermind and the killers, saying, “We will find you. If you surrender now it will be your best option.”
Degamo’s killing underscores that even local politicians are not immune from high-profile gun violence that has persisted despite the government’s pledge to combat it.
In a separate recent attack, unidentified men reportedly wearing police uniforms fired at the van of northern Aparri town Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda, killing him and five companions in northern Nueva Vizcaya province. The suspects remain at large.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/04/1161141561/philippines-governor-killed-shooting-attack
Marcos’ First Problem: Crime, Rebellions, and the Phenomenology of the Second Order in Cosmic History (with an Appendix by E. Rajapakse)
Marcos took office last year, and his first major problem was crime, as well as Muslim and communist rebellions.