MANILA, Philippines — Just weeks after a local court handed down the guilty verdict on the perpetrators of the gruesome Ampatuan town massacre, authorities arrested one of the suspects who remained at-large.

In his report to the PTFoMS secretariat headed by Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, Police Lt. Col. Inbrahim Jambiran, Chief of Police of the Parang Municipal Police Station (MPS), identified the suspect as Faisal Dimaukom, alias Kagi Faizal.

Jambiran said that Dimaukom was nabbed by a composite team led by Jambiran himself for Parang MPS, P/Lt Col. Renato  Mauricio, P/Cpt.  Paul  Symon Villareal and Datu Saudi Ampatuan (DSA) MPS P/Cpt Abdulbasit Kulod  at Brgy. Kabinge, Maguindanao on or about 5:05am last   January 6.

“One down, seventy-nine to go,” said PTFoMS Co-Chair and Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar.

“No one said it’s going to be easy, but personally I think it’s just a matter of time before the long arm of the law catches up with them. It may even take some time to put all of them under custody, but eventually, justice will prevail as we have seen in the first batch of suspects,” Andanar said.

A fragmentation grenade was seized from Dimaukom during the arrest and he was turned over to Parang MPS for proper documentation and disposition.

For his part, Egco, said “it only goes to show that this government will not rest until all those accused who are still in hiding have been arrested. I know that their day of reckoning will come sooner or later.”

The recent arrest of Dimaukom is a significant development in the intensified nationwide manhunt for the remaining suspects as ordered by PNP Officer-in-Charge Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa.

On December 9, 2019, Gamboa, through PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, issued a nationwide alert for hunting the suspects and assured the bereaved families and relatives of victims that “efforts are ongoing and being intensified for the arrest of suspects who are still at-large.”

Ten days later, on December 19, the principal suspects in the “People vs. Datu Andal Ampatuan, Jr. alias ‘Unsay’, et. al” were found guilty by Branch 221 Presiding Judge Jocelyn A. Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City.

The PTFoMS will continue to monitor the developments in the on-going manhunt operations and inform the public on the updates. (CurrentPH/JGo)