Abu terrorist surrender to Lamitan City mayor
TIMRA Reports • 11:15 AM Sat May 13, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
COTABATO CITY - A member of the now obviously weakened Abu Sayyaf in Basilan surrendered this week to the mayor of Lamitan City in Basilan.
Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters Saturday the Abu Sayyaf member turned in a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle to Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay before he renounced his membership with the group.
Nobleza declined to identify the Abu Sayyaf member for his safety.
The group is known for attacking members who have surrendered and their relatives.
In a report to Nobleza’s office in Camp SK Pendatun in Parang town in Maguindanao del Norte, the surrenderer, a Yakan, was quoted by the Lamitan City Police Station as saying he decided to reform for good after realizing that their city government is serious in its programs meant to improve the lives of violent religious extremists who have pledged allegiance to the government.
“Local government units indeed play a very important role in ushering members of local terrorist groups back to mainstream society,” Nobleza said.
He said he admires how the office of Basilan Mayor Jim Salliman and his constituent-mayors are supporting the efforts of the Basilan Provincial Police Office and units of the military’s Western Mindanao Command to clear the island province from Abu Sayyaf presence.
Furigay, chairperson of the Lamitan City Peace and Order Council, said credit for their feats in addressing religious extremism in all of their more than 40 barangays should partly go to the office of Salliman and different agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, including the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government under the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo.
Sinarimbo is the chairman of the multi-sector Regional Advisory Group of PRO-BAR, whose headquarters is in Camp SK Pendatun in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte.
Photo: The surrender rite was held at the Lamitan City mayor’s office. (From Lamitan City Police Station)