COTABATO CITY, Philippines (October 31, 2025) — Policemen shot dead an uncooperative drug dealer, seized firearms, explosives and P1.3 million worth of shabu in houses that they searched in an anti-narcotics operation in Barangay Pantar in Banisilan, Cotabato on Tuesday, October 28.
Municipal officials and barangay leaders reported on Wednesday that personnel of different units of the Police Regional Office-12 were forced to neutralize a known shabu peddler, the 30-year-old Jannal Lao, when he pulled out a gun and opened fire at the policemen approaching his hideout, bringing with them a search warrant from a court.
Local executives and members of the multi-sector Cotabato Provincial Peace and Order Council said on Wednesday that that targets of the search operations were the adjoining houses of Lao and six other illegal drug traffickers, Medalya Sultan Tidong, Zenaida Lao Tidong, Wawie Manampen Sultan, Minsu Pagumping Sultan, Jack Capatoy Sultan, Mark Kasan Abad.
Only Abad yielded and turned himself in after his five accomplices ran away when gunshots reverberated through the surroundings as Lao and police anti-narcotics operatives traded shots.
Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said the search operation was premised on reports by residents of Banisilan about the group’s drug trafficking activities in the municipality and in other areas in Cotabato province, validated with the help of municipal and provincial officials.
“We are grateful to the vigilant confidential informants who shared information about their illegal activities,” Ardiente said.Local officials and investigators from the Cotabato Provincial Police Office said the law-enforcement teams involved in the operation found in the houses of Lao and his six cohorts, long under surveillance, an M1 Garand rifle, two pistols, various calibers of ammunition for assault rifles, improvised explosive devices, a rifle-propelled grenade and 32 packs of shabu, approximately weighing 205 grams, costing P1.3 million.
Photo shows police forensic experts sifting through the scene of the shootout that left Lao, a wanted dealer of shabu and marijuana, dead.