MILF tipster gets P15M

Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. AP FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A mole from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who provided information that led to the killing of Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” reportedly received P15 million even before the actual operation to get the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist was carried out on Jan. 25.

Fr. Eliseo Mercado of the Graduate School of Peace Studies at Notre Dame University here said the amount received by the informant, identified only as Hashim, was just a partial payment from the US Rewards for Justice Program.

Administered by the Diplomatic Security Service of the US Department of State, the program offers rewards for information that prevents or favorably resolves terrorist attacks against American citizens worldwide.

The program has paid more than P125 million since its establishment by law in 1984.

$6-M bounty

Marwan, one of the brains behind the 2002 bombings of two nightclubs in the resort island of Bali in Indonesia that killed 202 people, including Americans, had a bounty of $5 million (about P221.2 million at P44.20 to $1) for his capture, dead or alive.

The reward was reportedly raised by $1 million before the launch of “Oplan Exodus,” the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) operation that took Marwan down in Tukanalipao village, Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, in the early hours of Jan. 25.

Mercado told a local radio station here on Friday that Hashim was one of the tipsters whom the US government had tapped in the manhunt for Marwan.

The Inquirer learned last week that the MILF was holding two members believed to have tipped off the SAF to the presence of Marwan in Mamasapano.

It was unclear, however, whether the two men were being held for betraying Marwan or to protect them, as they stood to benefit from the US reward.

The two men reportedly sought refuge in territory controlled by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) after the SAF operation, but they were taken by the MILF after a clash with BIFF fighters on Feb. 6.

The SAF threw 392 elite police commandos into the operation to get Marwan and his Filipino deputy, Basit Usman, who has a $3-million price on his head.

The Malaysian-born Marwan was killed, but Usman escaped.

Forty-four of the commandos were killed while 15 others were injured in a 12-hour gun battle with guerrillas from the BIFF and the MILF who attacked the policemen as they withdrew from the town.

Information from locals

Asked where he got his information, Mercado said it was from locals he met during a recent visit to Tukanalipao.

“They even told me that I knew the informant,” Mercado said.

Sought for comment, Kurt Hoyer, spokesperson for the US Embassy in Manila, said: “In general, all information pertaining to an RFJ-listed terrorist case would have to be fully confirmed and resolved prior to its being assessed for any potential associated reward payment.”

Hoyer declined to comment on Mercado’s claim.

Tell all

“We cannot speak about the specifics of the Marwan case, because it is currently under investigation,” he said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

The tragic ending of the Mamasapano operation has sparked widespread public anger and stalled congressional discussion of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law that would establish a new, autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao, as provided for in the peace agreement signed by the government and the MILF in March last year.

Mercado said President Aquino must disclose the truth behind the operation in Mamasapano to restore public trust in the peace talks.

“The anger of the people is so strong and their trust has been shattered. The people want to know if the operation was facilitated by the US,” he said.

Mercado said the basis of the public’s suspicion was the sighting of Director Getulio Napeñas, the sacked SAF commander, and two US soldiers at the command post in Shariff Aguak town, also in Maguindanao, on Jan. 25.

Two Evergreen Bell noncombat helicopters also landed in Shariff Aguak on that day.

“This only means that Napeñas, along with the two US soldiers, and the President in Zamboanga City on Jan. 25 monitored the situation in real time,” Mercado said.

The military said the helicopter belonged to a contractor for the US military that helped to evacuate the wounded SAF personnel and the bodies of the slain commandos.

Not walk in the park

Mercado said it turned out that the SAF operation was “not a walk in the park” unlike in the killing of Jemaah Islamiyah bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi in 2003.

“In the case of Al-Ghozi, [the SAF] got him from his hideout and then killed him along the highway. But with Marwan’s, it’s not like a walk in the park. The area is an MILF territory. All the people there are sympathetic [to the rebels]. You will be isolated,” Mercado said.

An Indonesian, Al-Ghozi planned and financed the bomb attack on LRT Line 1 that killed 22 people on Dec. 30, 2000.

He was arrested on Jan. 15, 2002, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of illegal possession of explosives.

Al-Ghozi escaped from jail on July 14, 2003, but was killed in a gunfight with police at a military checkpoint in Pigcauayan town, Cotabato province, three months later.

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