Cabaero: Impressions of Bohol clashes

THE recent capture of suspected Abu Sayyaf members in Bohol dead or alive reveal the complexity of the bandit group’s connections and the local community’s involvement to get these criminals.

The first impression regarding the complex ties is bad, and the other on the support of residents is good. Different approaches are needed for government to neutralize the first and to build on the other.

Last Saturday, Abu Sayyaf leader Joselito Melloria and three others were killed in a gunfight with soldiers in Clarin town, Bohol. Melloria was said to have guided Abu Sayyaf members to Bohol, his hometown. Soldiers were able to detect Melloria and his group after a habal-habal (motorcycle for hire) driver reported to them a man who looked suspicious, was smelly, looked tired, and spoke Bol-anon with an intonation.

This habal-habal driver was probably one of the local residents starting to get tired of the disruption to their lives and the frequent evacuation to safe places caused by the gun battles between the Abu Sayyaf and pursuing government troopers. The bandit group is known to have moved away from their lair in Basilan in Mindanao to the Visayas to undertake more kidnappings for ransom.

As one Bohol resident said in a SunStar Cebu report, “Maynta’g madakpan na sila para mahusay na ang among pamuyo (I hope they will get caught soon so we can go back to our lives).” She was mad at the Abu Sayyaf for what it did to her peaceful province and she said the group should be stopped. It is this sentiment that is prodding Bohol residents to be vigilant and to do their part in the police operation.

The incident involving Melloria reveals the growing frustration of residents to the disorder caused by the bandit group and the willingness of the community to do its part to end the threat.

Another revelation in the Aby Sayyaf in Bohol narrative was in the complex ties that connect a leader with a female police officer. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald dela Rosa highlighted this when he said Superintendent Maria Christina Nobleza was “sleeping with the enemy.”

Dela Rosa announced Monday the capture of Nobleza together with Reenor Lou Dungon, alias Kudre, a suspected bomb maker and Abu Sayyaf group member. Dungon is a relative of late Abu Sayyaf leader and founder Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani and a brother-in-law of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Solaiman. Nobleza is the current deputy regional director of the crime laboratory of the Davao Regional Police Office. She was a former member of the PNP-Anti Illegal Drugs Group.

Dela Rosa quickly denied this meant the Abu Sayyaf had infiltrated the PNP as the Nobleza incident was the only such case discovered.

These revelations – the complex ties of the Abu Sayyaf and the people’s support of the police campaign to get the bandit group – tell us of how solutions to this peace and order problem demand a comprehensive action that entails looking inward for clarification and discipline, and reaching outward for some help.

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