Man mistaken by police as Abu Sayyaf freed

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police authorities released in Manila a man mistakenly arrested in Lamitan, Basilan as an Abu Sayyaf leader carrying a P1-million reward, an official said here.

Uttoh Buddiman, 29, who was mistaken as Abu Sayyaf sub-commander Ottoh Hapikin, was freed Monday by the Police Anti-Crime Enforcement Respond (PACER) unit in Camp Crame, Basilan Governor Wahab Akbar said.

Buddiman, a Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) member, was nabbed last Friday in Lamitan town proper by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 9 (CIDG) after a month-long surveillance.

Buddiman claimed that he was mauled by authorities during his custody in a detention cell in this city before he was brought to Manila.

"They took my personally belongings like cellphone, a pair of shoes, cash amounting to P10,200.00 and an automated teller machine card and mauled me just to force me to admit who I’m not," Buddiman said in the Yakan dialect.

Buddiman was handed over by the authorities to the custody of Akbar, who presented him Tuesday in this city.

Akbar even vouched for the identity of Buddiman, who, he said even joined the military at the height of the campaign against the Abu Sayyaf.

Akbar appealed to the authorities to double intelligence monitoring to avoid similar incident of indiscriminate arrest of innocent civilians in the island province citing there are still similar cases of arrest who remained in detention.

"The authorities should have coordinated with the local officials. Because they don’t can not identify all of this Abu Sayyaf members unlike us even if they will skin this Abu Sayyaf members we can still recognize them," Akbar told newsmen.

He said that this seemingly indiscriminate crackdown on civilians who are mistaken to be members of the bandit group might force innocent civilians instead to go to the mountain.

According to Akbar, while he supported the crackdown before against the Abu Sayyaf as it totally rid off the presence of the bandits. "Now, Basilan has a totally different story, we have a state of lawfulness not a state of lawlessness."