The number of Ampatuan massacre suspects still at large went down to 116 after another one was arrested in Cotabato City Saturday morning.
Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, spokesman of the Philippine National Police, said Salipada Tampugao was nabbed during a manhunt operation in Purok Bango Ingued Mother in Barangay (village) Tamontaka around 9 a.m.
Tampugao, who is among the 195 people accused in the killing of 57 people in Barangay Salamn, Ampatuan on November 23 last year, has a 250,000 bounty on his head.
He was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, who is hearing the multiple murder case against members of the Ampatuan clan, members of its supposed private army, and local Maguindanao policemen.
The arrest brings to 79 the number of suspects arrested for the crime. Most of them are currently detained at the National Capital Region Police Office headquarters inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Other policemen-suspects, who are being eyed to become state witnesses, had been separated from the others and are being kept at the Custodial Center of the PNP headquarters at Camp Camp Crame in Quezon City.
The newly arrested suspect is under the custody of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao regional police office, and will be transferred to a maximum security facility inside Camp Bagong Diwa. — LBG
