PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte, in an interview with the press in Tagbilaran City Port last Wednesday, offered a P1 million bounty for each of the six remaining Abu Sayyaf members in Inabanga, Bohol, dead or alive, who killed three soldiers and a policemen in an encounter with the government troops on April 11.
I presume that this amount is on top of the existing bounty for the heads of the bandits, if there is any.
The AFP leadership is thankful for the reward, saying that it will expedite the arrest of the bandits.
As written in some reports, the reward would be given to anyone who will provide information that would lead to the capture or death of each member of the terrorist group.
It would not be very difficult to look for six ASG members in a Christian-dominated populace by virtue of their looks.
It is a different matter altogether in areas that have a predominantly Muslim populace. In Basilan, for example, I have heard complaints and received some requests for help from some people for their family members of who are in prison on suspicion that they are ASG members. The family members vehemently deny this.
Members of the intelligence community admit that such random identification of suspects has happened many times, mainly because the ASG members-turned government state witnesses under the DOJ’s witness protection program are also rewarded P5,000 for every ASG member they would identify. The ASG-turned-state-witness would identify randomly, indiscriminately or haphazardly just to get the reward.
The intelligence operatives, in fact, have asked my help to expose this system of arbitrarily identifying ASG suspects. They said that some of those who are in jail, in fact, are their assets and not ASG members.
Because the ASG in Sulu and Basilan are so numerous as to be indistinguishable from one another, it would be difficult for the government to offer the same bounty. This may be the reason why President Duterte gave a stern warning to the ASG “not to reach the places beyond the Mindanao Sea.”
“Because ‘pagka ganon, I will maybe invade Jolo. Invasion na lang talaga. But maraming madisgrasya diyan civilians, bata. But ‘pag naipit na ang bayan, I will order the invasion of Jolo. Lahat ng Army, lahat ng Navy magpunta doon. Iyan bakbakan na talaga iyan. Kung iyan ang gusto nila, ibibigay ko,” the President warned. JOSEPHINE CODILLA
