AFP seeks custody of Abu Sayyaf leader

Security forces will jointly seek the transfer of Abu Sayyaf group (ASG) subleader Abduljihad “Idang” Susukan to military custody, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said on Sunday.

Arevalo said the AFP Judge Advocate General’s Office and the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group (PNP-IG) would file a joint motion to transfer custody of Susukan to the AFP from the PNP which transferred him to the PNP Custodial Center in Quezon City after he was arrested on Thursday at the residence of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari in Davao City.

“We subscribe to the rule of law,” Arevalo said. “Susukan must be made to answer for a score of heinous crimes he has committed—23 gruesome cases of murder, five charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and six complaints for frustrated murder.”

He said, “The ball is now with the Department of Justice for the prosecution of cases.”

AFP chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay described Susukan’s arrest as a “major blow” to the Abu Sayyaf group leadership.

He directed military field unit commanders in Mindanao to “further intensify focused military operations to prevent possible retaliation by Idang’s followers and to force them to surrender or face demise.”

The PNP assured that it remains on high alert, along with the military, “to prevent and respond to any reprisal attack.”

The Susukan-led ASG subgroup is allegedly responsible for the 2012 kidnapping of several people from Negri Sembilan, Malaysia; a Taiwanese national from Pompom island in 2013; and of Malaysian national Bernad Then whom the group beheaded in 2015. He was also believed to have been behind the kidnapping of a Malaysian and two Indonesians in waters off Sabah in 2018.