Basilan map. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur — The military identified the two bodies recovered in an operation in Barangay Pamatsaken, Sumisip town of Basilan on Tuesday to be those of the followers of Abu Sayyaf subleaders Mudzrimar Sawadjaan of Sulu and Pasil Bayali of Basilan, both subjects of an intensive manhunt by the military.
Colonel Frederick Sales, acting commander of the Joint Task Force Basilan, merely identified the two bodies as that of a certain Dodong, positively linked with Sawadjaan, also known as Mundi; and a certain Boy, also associated with Bayali, also known as Kera.
Dodong and Boy’s bodies were recovered after the clearing operation in Barangay Pamatsaken, Sumisip town, following a focused military operation targeting the two Abu Sayyaf subleaders in the wee hours of Tuesday at Sitio Talisay, Barangay Upper Benembengan, Sumisip town.
Sales said, however, that the military had yet to ascertain the full identity of the slain suspects.
The two bodies were recovered during the clearing operations in Barangay Pamatsaken and were turned over to village officials and the Sumisip police.
Three days earlier, the military were trying to apprehend Mundi, resulting in the rescue of an Indonesian teenager identified as the son of the suicide bombers behind the January 2019 bombing of the Jolo cathedral that killed 23 people and wounded more than a hundred others.
“Your armed forces will not stop its military operations until the terror groups are completely crushed,” said Lt. General Roy Galido, chief of Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) in a statement.
“We have deployed our forces to eliminate the threats and secure the communities in Basilan,” he added.
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