.png){kind=logo}
1 month ago
26
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
John Unson - Philstar.com
August 25, 2026 | 4:12pm
Police units in the Bangsamoro region's adjoining Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces have tightened security in strategic stretches of highways in both areas after policemen had neutralized the long wanted criminal gang leader Rambo Guiasalim in an operation on Aug. 23, 2026.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A remnant of the defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group, wanted for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, narcotics trafficking and 12 vehicle theft cases, was killed in a shootout with policemen in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur on Sunday, August 23.
Local executives told reporters on Tuesday that the slain Rambo Guiasalim also belonged to the group that attacked a platoon of the police’s Special Action Force tasked to arrest the Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Bir, also known as Marwan, on Jan. 25, 2015 in Pidsandawan in Mamasapano in Maguindanao del Sur, killing 44 SAF personnel in an incident that shook the nation to its core.
Municipal officials who helped locate in Barangay Kuloy in Shariff Aguak the elusive long-wanted Guiasalim separately told reporters that policemen from different units of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office were to arrest him peacefully but he resisted, pulled out a .45 caliber pistol and opened fire, provoking a gunfight that resulted in his death.
The wife of Guiasalim, Marisa Bukanan-Guiasalim, was wounded in the clash, immediately brought by emergency responders to a hospital for treatment.
Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said policemen immediately detained a companion of Guiasalim, Tato Edzong, also wanted for heinous criminal offenses, who surrendered to them voluntarily after the incident.
Policemen had seized from Edzong a fragmentation grenade, according to Salanguit.
One of the more than 10 murder cases that Guiasalim was supposed to be prosecuted for was his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting in 2014 of Shariff Aguak’s municipal administrator, Alfredo Amelista, in a daring attack in one of the barangays in the municipality.
He was also implicated in 15 motorcycle and car theft offenses from between 2015 and 2017, according to local executives in different towns in Maguindanao del Sur, who also confirmed that he connived with remaining members of the now inactive Dawlah Islamiya terror group in circulating shabu and marijuana in far-flung barangays in the province.
