Suspect wanted for bombings in Central Mindanao arrested

COTABATO CITY — Policemen on Monday, April 28, arrested a suspected terrorist long wanted for bombings of passenger vehicles and commercial establishments in Central Mindanao.

The now-detained Taludin Saligan has also been identified as one of the masterminds behind the Jan. 17, 2021 bombing of a Yellow Bus Company unit in Tulunan, Cotabato, which resulted in the death of a passenger and left nine others, including the driver, injured.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Wednesday, April 30, that Saligan was cornered by personnel of different PRO-BAR units and agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Barangay Badak in General SK Pendatun, Maguindanao del Sur.

Saligan, a member of the now significantly weakened Dawlah Islamiya, Al-Khobar, and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, peacefully surrendered after being shown different arrest warrants from the Regional Trial Court Branch 15 in Cotabato City and RTC Branch 23 in Kidapawan City. He faces charges of multiple murder and frustrated murder in connection with his alleged involvement in deadly bomb attacks across Central Mindanao in recent years.

Former BIFF and Dawlah Islamiya members who have returned to the fold of law, including two Islamic preachers who have availed of the reconciliation program of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for violent religious extremists, told reporters that they helped police and the military officials build extortion and armed robbery cases against Saligan. These offenses occurred between 2019 and 2022.

Local executives in Central Mindanao provinces told reporters that Saligan is a close relative of a former BIFF commander, Gani Saligan, who surrendered to the 6th ID in 2019. Both of them were henchmen of the founder of the BIFF, the radical cleric Ameril Ombra Kato, who died from a hypertensive stroke in 2014, according to local government officials in the region.

Macapaz said the joint operation of PRO-BAR units, the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the CIDG’s Field Unit in the Bangsamoro region that led to the arrest of Saligan was assisted by local officials and traditional Moro leaders.