AKG agents bag wanted ASG member
A 37-YEAR-OLD “elusive” member of the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) was captured by agents of the Philippine National Police-Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG) in a manhunt operation in Patikul, Sulu, on Tuesday, PNP-AKG Director Colonel Rodolfo D. Castil Jr. said.
In a report to PNP Chief Gen. Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr., the official said the arrested suspect with the alias “Ben Tattoo”, a resident of Patikul, Sulu who is the subject of a warrant for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, murder, and kidnapping with homicide.
Judge Anthony Isaw of the Siocon Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 27 in Zamboanga del Norte recommended no bail for the temporary liberty of the accused on August 28, 2020.
According to Castil, members of the AKG Mindanao Field Unit, with the assistance of local police and military operatives, arrested the suspect at 10:20 a.m. Tuesday (Oct. 4, 2022).
The official said that the suspect is wanted for his involvement in the kidnapping-for-ransom of Jose Duterte and his wife Jessica on March 3, 2017, in Sitio Tabuk, Barangay Sta. Maria in Siocon municipality.
The male Duterte, then 60 years old, and his wife Jessica, then 52, were abducted by at least five suspects near their coconut farm in Siocon.
One of the suspects was arrested in the same year. A year later, security forces rescued Jose Duterte in Panamao, Sulu. The victims are not in any way related to former President Rodrigo Duterte.
