Sayyaf leader captured

Authorities have arrested top Abu Sayyaf ringleader Nadzmie Sabtullah, alias Commander Global, who engineered the kidnapping of 21 people from a Sipadan island resort in Malaysia last year.

Sabtullah, 40, was arrested along with three of his henchmen after a joint police-military raid on his safehouse at Achara subdivision in Barangay Calumpang, General Santos City, said Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Manuel Raval.

Raval identified the three other arrested bandits as Javier Sampang, 32; Saltimar Salih, 16; and Halik Sabdani, 23, all from Sabtullah’s hometown of Talipao, Sulu.

Police said a resident tipped off authorities that Sabtullah, who carried a P5-million bounty on his head, and his men were in a house near the airport.

Police and troops surrounded the area and used a megaphone to ask residents to come out for identification. The authorities were frisking some 60 residents one by one when the tipster pointed out Sabtullah.

A search of the house that he exited from — owned by a Muslim businessman who fled — yielded four grenades, 98 rounds of 5.56-mm ammunition and three two-way radio transceivers.

Sporting a sparse goatee and close-cropped hair, a handcuffed Sabtullah stood with his head bowed during a news conference at the Army headquarters at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City and only shook his head when journalists asked for a statement.

The four bandits were arrested hours after a homemade bomb ripped through a General Santos beerhouse, wounding 15 people, seven of them critically, late Saturday night.

Police said Sabtullah’s men were spotted in the beerhouse before the explosion.

Security forces quickly went on high alert around South Cotabato, including General Santos City, which is only about four hours by speedboat from the Abu Sayyaf strongholds in Basilan and Sulu islands.

"There could be other Abu Sayyaf members in South Cotabato because they fled the Army offensive in Basilan," Raval said.

"We are now on red alert," added General Santos City police chief Senior Superintendent Conrado Lasa. "We have intensified monitoring of suspicious people in the city."

Meanwhile, the military said the arrest of Sabtullah and his men was the result of a drawn-out intelligence operation against the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

"They have long been tailed by intelligence operatives," said Armed Forces Southern Command spokesman Col. Danilo Servando.

"This was an intelligence effort that was developed way, way before and the culmination was the arrest of the subjects," Servando added.

Military intelligence sources said Sabtullah owned responsibility for the planning of several kidnapping activities since 1988, 10 years before Abu Sayyaf founder Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani was killed in a gunbattle with government forces in Lamitan, Basilan.

"He is the brains. He plans everything for the Abu Sayyaf. The other commanders of the group are executioners of his plans," the source said.

Commander Global, known for his trademark beret and scarred jaw, was best known for his blueprint of raiding Sipadan island, dragging off several Malaysian and Western hostages and winning millions of dollars in ransom plus the involvement of Malaysia and Libya.

In 1998, Global planned the kidnapping of two Hong Kong nationals and a Malaysian in Malamanok, Tawi-Tawi. Sabtullah was also responsible in the foiled kidnapping of American priest Rev. Clarence Bertelsman, curé of the Sacred Heart of Jesus chapel inside the police headquarters Camp Asturias in 1997.

Global disguised himself as a ranking police official and escorted the priest out of the chapel but the police and military caught up with Global’s group and rescued Bertelsman.

Global also planned the sensational raid on Ipil town in Zamboanga del Sur on April 4, 1995 where the bandits pillaged the town’s commercial district and killed more than 60 civilians.

Sabtullah was also responsible for the kidnapping of two Spanish nuns and American linguist Charles Walton in 1993.

Global’s group was also tagged for the foiled raid in the Pearl Farm Resort on Samal island off Davao City last May.

Sabtullah was the third Abu Sayyaf ringleader to be arrested by authorities in two months.

Last month, police and military intelligence in two separate raids captured one Abdullah Mulo, alias Boy Iran, and a certain Jose Cheng, both allegedly connected with the Abu Sayyaf.

Intelligence sources said Sabtullah’s arrest also reduced to four the number of bandit ringleaders on Sulu island. They are Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, Mujib Susukan, Abu Jumbail alias Doktor Abu Pula and Radulan Sahiron, the "one-armed bandit."

Gov’t turning the corner vs Abus?

Meanwhile, Malacañang lauded the arrest of Global, saying the capture signals the start of the demise of the bandit group that has been terrorizing residents of Basilan and Sulu.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao, at a press briefing, described the arrest as the fruit of the combined operations of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and even the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

"We see it as another indication that the Abu Sayyaf network is being gradually but surely dismantled. In fact, we see that we’re turning the corner now in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf," Tiglao said.

Tiglao said there is an ongoing evaluation to determine who would get the rewards for the arrests.

"They say there is a civilian informant and so the priority would be the civilian informant," he said.

In Zamboanga City, Armed Forces chief Gen.Diomedio Villanueva said Global’s arrest is a big boost to the military in its drive to flush out the bandit group.

Villanueva lauded the elements of the 601st Army Brigade, 12th Intelligence and Security Unit, 11th Intelligence and Security Unit as well as the General Santos City police for the successful operation.

"It’s minus one and one big plus for our soldiers and definitely this dwindled the strength of the Abu Sayyaf organization," said Villanueva who arrived here late yesterday afternoon.

With Global’s arrest, Villanueva said the offensive against the bandits will continue relentlessly.

"But of course we have to see to the paramount safety of the remaining hostages," the AFP chief said.– With Edith Regalado, Christina Mendez, Marichu Villanueva