Mayor in Maguindanao denies allegation he is into drugs trade

^{Mayor Montasir Sabal of Talitay town. --Ferdinandh Cabrera}

A Maguindanao province town mayor linked to illegal drugs trade denied on Friday the allegation and challenged the police to show evidence to prove his guilt.

Mayor Montasir Sabal of Talitay town told GMA News that Sultan Kudarat authorities tagged him as a top drug honcho.

“I strongly deny this [allegation]... so malicious and politically motivated,” Sabal said.

Supt. Joefil Siason, Sultan Kudarat's Isulan town police chief, claimed that Sabal's name was listed on the search warrant issued by a local court, which the police implemented last Saturday, July 30, in Barangay Kalawag.
 
In the July 30 raid, Isulan police arrested 16 people and seized P1.3 million worth of shabu, including drug paraphernalia and an alleged blue book and bank transaction receipts that contained the group’s clients.
 
Siason said Sabal was in the bungalow that was under police surveillance operations but managed to escape along with its owners during the raid.
 
But Sabal's relatives were among those the police arrested, Siason added.
 
“I was not there during the police raid, I was only in that house once or twice last May to attend a wedding of my wife’s relatives,” Sabal said, adding that, “I was there because she was a relative of the couple who was wed.” 

Sabal  then challenged the Sultan Kudarat police to show convincing proof and not only “raw information.”
 
“They cannot use raw or intelligence information to pin me down, I was once a policeman,” said Sabal, who claimed he was a former police officer of the Special Action Force before becoming a mayor.
 
But he admitted that sometime in 2007 he was into illegal drugs but abandoned the activity when he joined politics.
 
He also claimed he vowed to do away with illegal drugs before the Holy Quran and before officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
 
Sabal is a son of MILF leader known as “Commander Rambo 5" who is a brigade commander under the 106th base command of the rebel group.
 
Sabal said he is ready to face PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa and the Department of Interior and Local Government for investigation.
 
“But I am taking my time ... not now,” he said of his readiness to face investigation in Camp Crame.
 
“I will wait what will happen to Mayor Rasul Sangki of Ampatuan town who surrendered to police authorities.”
 
Sabal lamented the police report “because it has affected my family and my children.”

Last Friday, two mayors from Lanao del Sur, who are on President Rodrigo Duterte's list of "narcopoliticians" or politicians involved in illegal drugs, have surrendered to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

PNP Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa presented Maguing Mayor Mamaulan Abinal Molok and former Marantao Mayor Mohammadali Abinal before the media on Friday. —Ferdinandh Cabrera/LBG, GMA News