Cops, soldiers in Cebu, Bohol press hunt for alleged ASG team

The municipality of Inabanga town, Bohol has released a poster of the members of the bandit group Abu Sayyaf who entered the town’s interior village of Napo and engaged government troops in a gun-battle that lasted for more than a day

CEBU CITY — Government troops continued to go after seven alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and their local guide who were involved in the gunfight in Sitio Ilaya, Barangay Napo, Inabanga town, Bohol province last week.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police have released the list of armed men who remain at large.

They are Joselito “Alih” Milloria, alias Richard, alias Asis, alias Ubayda, alias Poy, alias Dah, alias Saad, and alias Amra.

Milloria is a native of Napo who served as guide of the alleged members of the bandit group when they entered the village on April 10. He left Napo several years ago when he married a woman who was allegedly the daughter of a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group in Mindanao.

Four of their alleged companions were killed in the shootout.

They were Moumar “Abu Rami” Askali, the leader of the group; alias Abu Sufyan, a bomb expert; Edimar Isnain, and an unidentified person.

A poster of the suspects was released by the municipality of Inabanga in its Facebook page. “Stay alert and vigilant. Immediately inform authorities whenever you see these persons and other suspicious-looking men in your areas,” the FB post read in Cebuano.

Supt. Lorenzo Batuan, deputy director for operations of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, said government forces remained in the field to locate and arrest the remaining members of the group. “We continue to look for them,” he said in a phone interview./rga