ZAMBOANGA CITY – The absence of any military intelligence report monitoring the movements and sightings of Indonesian bomb maker Dulmatin bolstered the military’s claims that they have already neutralized one of Asia’s most wanted terrorists.
Anti-terror Task Force Comet chief Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael said there had been no reports of Dulmatin being spotted in the past two months, bolstering claims that the body recovered from a shallow grave in Tawi-Tawi last Monday was Dulmatin’s.
The military began DNA tests on tissue samples taken from the body resembling Dulmatin after it was dug up in Tawi-Tawi by government troops who were led to the shallow jungle grave by Alpha Moha, a captured Abu Sayyaf rebel.
Officials have expressed optimism that they have found Dulmatin and neutralized one of Asia’s most wanted terrorists, believed to be behind the bloody attack at a resort in Bali, Indonesia in 2002.
Washington has offered a $10-million bounty for Dulmatin, a leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional militant network blamed for a series of bombings in Indonesia.
Dulmatin was believed to have fled to the southern Philippines in 2003 with Umar Patek, another JI member, after both were implicated in the Bali blasts, which killed tourists, many of them Australians, holidaying on the resort island.
Dulmatin and Patek took refuge with the Abu Sayyaf in exchange for training homegrown terrorists on explosives and bomb-making.
Rafael said the military had been monitoring the movements of the Abu Sayyaf along with Dulmatin and Patek since the armed forces launched the full-scale offensive in 2005.
“Dulmatin was monitored to be moving in and out of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi since late last year, but we lost track of him in Sulu for more than a month now until the reported recovery of the remains,” Rafael said.
Dulmatin reportedly died from wounds sustained during an encounter with government troops in Sitio Bato-bato, Panglima Sugala town on Jan. 31.
There were also reports that Patek was also wounded during the encounter, but the military said they are still verifying the report.
In that encounter, Abu Sayyaf leader Wahab Opao was killed, the military said.
Opao and Dulmatin reportedly led a team that snatched Fr. Reynaldo Roda, who was killed after trying to resist the kidnap attempt last Jan. 15.
Moha surrendered and admitted participating in the attempted snatch and in the encounter that killed Opao and Dulmatin. He led the troops to where he believed the remains of Dulmatin were buried.
Rafael echoed the claims by other military officials that a positive result of the DNA tests on the body of Dulmatin would spell a victory in their anti-terror campaign.