Rebel leader tagged in SAF deaths arrested

GEN. SANTOS CITY, Philippines  – Army and police operatives arrested here Sunday night one of the founders of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and five other rebels.

Mohammad Ali Tambako, who hails from Barangay Libutan in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, was nabbed exactly three months after he launched a more radical BIFF faction called the Justice for Islamic Movement.

JIM members claimed that they took part in the killing of 44 police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano last Jan. 25.

The military and police also tagged Tambako and his group as among those who brutally killed the SAF troopers in Mamasapano.

The JIM group has also been reported, aside from the BIFF, to be coddling bomb-maker Basit Usman and five other foreign terrorists.

The JIM, which is more known to local officials in Maguindanao as the Saifulllah that some of them interpret as “sword of God,” aims to establish an ethnically pure Moro state in the south, under an Islamic Sharia justice system, with absolute separation from the kuffar or non-Muslims.

Tambako was also the former vice chairman for military affairs of the BIFF.

Sources said Tambako was nabbed with his five followers Datukan Sato Sabiwang, Alih Ludisman, Mishari Gayak, Abusama Badrudin Guiamil and Ibrahim Manap,

The arresting team seized two handguns and three grenades from the rebels who were on board tricycles on their way to Gen. Santos City port when they were nabbed at Barangay Calumpang.

“They did not resist arrest when they were frisked and subjected to search for firearms and explosives,” said a senior police official, who asked not to be identified.

After the arrest, CIDG and military personnel took Tambako on board an Air Force Fokker and flew him to Villamor Air Base, arriving at past 2 p.m. yesterday.

According to the report, Tambako will be detained at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Tambako and the five other suspects underwent booking procedures at the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame.

Tambako’s group was subjected to fingerprinting, mug shots and medical examination at the CIDG National Capital Region office under Sr. Supt. Danilo Macerin.

An official of the CIDG said Tambako and the other suspects would remain at the CIDG detention cell pending the return of the warrant of arrest to a court in Cotabato City. The court will determine where the suspects will be detained.

Tambako had formed the JIM during a gathering of his followers in Mamasapano last December after they decided to bolt from the BIFF last year due to internal differences among the leaders.

Tambako has a standing warrant of arrest issued by Judge George Jabido of Cotabato City regional trial court Branch 15 for murder and double frustrated murder charges.

The warrant was issued last year in connection with the BIFF’s bloody incursion in three barangays in Midsayap, North Cotabato, where Tambako and his men beheaded farmers, burned houses and held several teachers and elementary pupils hostage for half a day as they plundered villages in the area.

Tambako had reportedly protected Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and his Filipino cohort Usman.

Usman escaped during the SAF operation in Mamasapano last Jan. 25 wherein Marwan was killed before the SAF commandos encountered members of the BIFF, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and private armed groups that resulted in the death of 44 SAF commandos, 18 rebels and several civilians.

Tambako reportedly founded the BIFF together with Ameril Ombra Kato and Imam Karialan in 2010.

Kato started as chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, but was booted out from the mainstream rebel group in 2009 for insubordination and other offenses.

Tambako’s camp in Dasikil area in Mamasapano was taken over by units of the Marines two weeks ago.

The Marines recovered from Tambako’s hideout materials for improvised explosive devices and a list of their targets, including bus terminals and public markets.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the rebel group JIM is now history following the arrest of Tambako.

“It’s (arrest) a great accomplishment because we were able to nip in the bud this alleged new group,” Catapang said in a press briefing in Villamor Airbase yesterday.

“It’s really a big loss for them because they were just starting but their founder or the man behind all these initiatives was already captured. I think they are now history and they will have a hard time to recover,” he added.

Catapang said the arrest of Tambako and his cohorts was “made possible through the excellent coordination among different government agencies.”

Despite the arrest, security forces will continue to run after Tambako’s followers and the remaining BIFF members in Maguindanao.

“We will still hunt down the BIFF. However, we will allow some areas where there are evacuees to return to their homes,” Catapang said.– With Jaime Laude, Cecille Suere Felipe, Rudy Santos, Alexis Romero, Edith Regalado