AFP warned of ‘suicidal’ members of Moro group

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Authorities were advised to keep a close watch on a previously unheard-of Moro group which attacked a Marine base in Talipao town in Sulu on September 25, leaving at least two soldiers and more than 20 armed men dead.

Members of the Awliya (Arabic for protector, defender or custodian) “are suicidal,” former Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin, who spent years of active duty in Mindanao, told the Inquirer during a visit here on Saturday.

Although it was his first time to hear about the Awliya, Querubin said he was told that it appeared to be dangerous. “It’s very alarming,” he said.

Military officers have described the Awliya as being composed of Abu Sayyaf bandits and former Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) members.

Querubin, who now works as a security consultant for San Miguel Corp., said the military should “seriously look” into the evolvement of Awliya.

“It appears that its members were fanatical. That’s where the danger is,” he said.

In the 1990s, Querubin said the military also initially dismissed the exploits of the Al Harakat al-Islamiyah as plain banditry. The group evolved to become the notorious Abu Sayyaf, which has been behind the kidnapping of a number of people, including foreigners, for ransom.

The United States later listed the Abu Sayyaf as a terror organization with links to the al-Qaida-based Jemaah Islamiyah.

“This group sowed terror more than we expected and established tactical alliances with other foreign terror organizations,” Querubin said of the Abu Sayyaf.

In 2001, Querubin supervised an operation that led to the death of Abu Sayyaf spokesperson Abu Sabaya.

Vice Admiral Alexander Pama, Navy flag officer, earlier told the Inquirer that the military was still uncertain about what Awliya really is. He said it was still gathering more information about the group and could not call it a terror organization at this time.

“It’s too early to call them as such. We are still looking into it. We don’t want to jump into conclusions,” Pama said. “The last thing we want to do is name calling.”

Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said the Awliya could be the equivalent of violent Christian cults.

He said the group’s leader, Hatib Zacharia, is “unorthodox” and teaches Islamic knowledge that “does not conform to either the Sunni or Shia teachings.”

“I consider him a leader of a millenarian movement of unorthodox Muslims in Sulu,” Banlaoi said.

Brigadier General Romeo Tanalgo, commander of the military-led Task Force Sulu, said his group had monitored the existence of Awliya as early as last year but considered it harmless then. “The group was more into prayers,” he said.

Later, the military said Awliya members appear to be practicing Sufism or mystic Islam.

Tanalgo said the Awliya attack on the Marines in Sulu last month “remained a mystery.”

What was equally puzzling, he said, was that nobody claimed the bodies of its slain members. This was not normal, he said, pointing to other Moro armed groups which made sure that the bodies of their slain members were not left behind or that relatives would later come to collect them.

Tanalgo confirmed Querubin’s description that Awliya members were “suicidal.”

“They did not care if they die,” he said, citing accounts of soldiers during the Sulu attack.