MANILA, Philippines–No one collected the $5-million reward offered by the US government for the head of the Malaysian terrorist Marwan, whom the Philippine military reported killed in a US-backed Philippine air strike in Sulu province two years ago, the country’s chief intelligence officer said on Thursday.
“Nobody claimed the reward because it was never confirmed that Marwan was killed in the air strike in 2012,” Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp), said in a text message, answering the Inquirer’s question Thursday about the bounty.
The Inquirer asked who pocketed the $5-million reward offered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation following the publication of a police interrogation report quoting a captured Abu Sayyaf leader saying he met Marwan in a camp of the hardline Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao province last year.
Abu Sayyaf leader Khair Mundos, who was captured in Parañaque City on June 11, said Marwan, whose real name is Zulkifli bin Hir, was with a Singaporean militant named Muhamda Ali, who used the guerrilla name Muawiyah, and another foreign militant, Amin Baco.
Hunted by gov’t still
The military reported that Marwan, a bomb maker for Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian affiliate of the global terror network al-Qaida, and Muawiyah were killed in a US-advised Philippine air strike on an Abu Sayyaf camp in Sulu on Feb. 2, 2012.
“There was a report on Marwan’s death but it was not confirmed and validated. We therefore consider him still alive and [he] is subject to law enforcement operations, hunted by the government,” Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, AFP spokesman, also told the Inquirer by phone.
“He is on the run and is in hiding. Sooner or later, we will neutralize him by capturing or killing him should he fight or resist arrest,” Zagala said.
“The report about his death was not confirmed and validated,” Zagala repeated, adding, “No reward was given.”
Zagala explained that the only way to validate a kill report was to recover the body or get DNA.
“That’s the only time that the US will give the reward,” he said.
Body never recovered
Año said Marwan’s body was never recovered and the intelligence community had received reports that Marwan had been sighted in the Cotabato-Lanao area together with 11 other members of Jemaah Islamiyah, who advised the Abu Sayyaf on terror tactics.
AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang did not like the news that Marwan was possibly still alive.
Catapang said he told Año to verify the information and submit a report to him before talking to reporters.
“I talked to General Año and I told him to submit a report so that we can act on it and we’ll make a public statement,” Catapang said.
Bali bombings
Zagala said Marwan was a fugitive who gained notoriety because of his involvement in the bombings of two restaurants in the resort island of Bali in Indonesia on Oct. 12, 2002.
More than 200 people, mostly tourists, were killed in the bombings, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 27 Britons, seven Americans, six Swedes and three Danes.
“Our operations against Marwan are going on. We will get him,” Zagala said.
The military considers Marwan “ineffective,” Zagala said, because other Jemaah Islamiyah operatives in Mindanao were “neutralized” two years ago.
He said Tekri, a Malaysian Jemaah Islamiyah terror suspect, and Salusi, another member of the terror group who was higher in rank than Marwan, were killed in 2012.
“Marwan is in Mindanao. I can’t reveal to you exactly where but there are ongoing operations,” Zagala said.–With a report from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao