Cotabato City–Police arrested Monday a suspect in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre that killed 58 people, 32 of them journalists.
Capt. Jemar delos Santos, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, identified the arrested suspect as Faisal Dimaukom alias Kagui Dimaukom, 42, a farmer-resident of Barangay Kabinge, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao.
“Seized from the house of Dimaukom was a fragmentation grenade,” Delos Santos said.
Members of the Regional Intelligence Division Police Regional Office-BARMM, Regional Mobile Force Battalion and Datu Saudi Ampatuan police swooped down on the house of Dimaukom around 4 a.m. Monday and caught the suspect.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Marni Marcos, PRO-BARMM chief, said that Dimaukom is one of the 80 suspects who remain at-large in connection with the massacre, described as the worst election-related violence in the country so far.
Bai, the wife of Dimaukom, cried foul over the arrest of her husband, saying she has documents to prove that the latter was attending a Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia at the time of the incident.
Delos Santos, however, said the suspect’s arrest was a result of an extensive intelligence gathering from their field operatives.
“Let us just wait and let the court decide on the fate of Dimaukom,” he said.
Dimaukom is currently detained at the Parang town police custodial facility in the province pending his transport and presentation before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City.
The RTC Branch 221 under Solis-Reyes has been handling the proceedings of the case since 2009.
On Dec. 19, 2019, the court handed down the guilty verdict on 28 principal suspects in the case that included Datu Andal Unsay Ampatuan Jr, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, Datu Anwar Sajid Ulo Ampatuan and Datu Anwar Ipi Ampatuan Jr.
They are sentenced to reclusion perpetua without the possibility of parole.
More than a dozen police officers at the time of the incident were also sentenced from six years to ten years imprisonment as accessories to the crime.