Two former congressmen have demanded justice for the killing of three criminology students in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat last Friday.
Former House Deputy Speaker Ali Pangalian Balindong and ex-Lanao del Sur Rep. Mauyag Balt Papandayan Jr. both called on high police authorities to order a thorough investigation of the incident.
Balindong said one of the three slain students, Samanoden Mustapha Ali, 19, was raised by a family of Maranao traders who settled in Lambayong, The victim was a grandson of his former aide.
Meanwhile, lawyer Ronald Halid Dimacisil Torres said his group of Muslim lawyers will collaborate with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for a parallel inquiry, Torres said the NBI agents will be assisted by Atty. Badrodin Mangindra.
Balindong, Speaker of the Bangsamoro Parliament, urged authorities for a deeper investigation of the crime as there appeared to be procedural lapses in the local police’s report of the killings.
The two Maranao leaders urged Philippine National Police (PNP) higher commands to help check earlier reports by the Lambayong police station that a shootout took place between the policemen and the victims who were first-year criminology students.
According to the Lambayong police report, the policemen chased the students Samanoden Mustapha Ali, 19, and his schoolmates, Horton Ansa Jr. and Anshad Ansa, 20, who were riding a motorcycle, until the boys stumbled and bumped on a tree along a dimly lit interior road.
Balindong, himself a lawyer, said the probers should scrutinize the police report, and as to why it did not involve a scene of the crime operatives’ (SOCO) participation, as alleged by the policeman-father of one of the victims.
Papandayan and Balindong were political rivals in Lanao del Sur’s second congressional district. But this time, they both stand for the cause of the victims’ families in seeking justice.
Papandayan urged locals to help protect the Maranaos who, he said, have sought refuge there in pursuit of their livelihood activities as traders.
Lambayong police chief Maj. Jenahmeel Toñacao said policemen manning in Purok 4, Barangay Didtaras in Lambayong, flagged down the three boys early dawn on December 2.
In videoed interviews posted on social media, Toñacao said the three students traded shots with the pursuing policemen after ignoring the checkpoint.