3 dead in shootout with cops in Cotabato province

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February 19, 2026 | 6:16pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A man wanted for motorcycle theft cases and trafficking of shabu and marijuana and his two companions were killed in a brief shootout with policemen who tried to serve him warrants for his arrest in a law enforcement operation in Matalam, Cotabato on Thursday morning, February 19, that went haywire.

Local executives and municipal police officials separately told reporters at noon Thursday that policemen, backed by barangay tanods, were to peacefully arrest the 30-year-old Ian Unsil Manial in his hideout in Purok 6 in Barangay Kilada in Matalam, but he pulled out an M16 assault rifle and opened fire, provoking a gunfight that resulted in his death.

Local executives and traditional Moro leaders actively supporting the law-enforcement activities of the police in Matalam, a known hostile town in Cotabato, said the incident also left two still unidentified companions of Manial, also both armed, dead.

Lt. Col. Arniel Melocotones, Matalam police chief, said the supposedly peaceful operation that turned bloody was assisted by policemen from different units of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and personnel of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade.

“They were to arrest Manial peacefully, based on warrants from a court, but he did not cooperate so there was this exchange of gunfire between them and the joint police-Army team that led to his immediate demise,” Melocotones told reporters.

Soldiers and policemen recovered firearms beside the cadavers of Manial and his companions, whom local executives said connived with him in his drug trafficking activities.

Manial was wanted for more than 10 high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts in Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Region 12.

Local executives told reporters that Manial and his companion also peddled shabu and marijuana in Matalam and in nearby towns in the province.