Two alleged sub-leaders of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who were involved in the abduction and beheading of various foreigners and local victims as well as bombing incidents have surrendered to authorities in Jolo, Sulu.
Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio, commander of Joint Task Force (JTF) Sulu, presented Mujer Yadah, 55; and Ben Tatto, 41; at Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo town on Friday, June 17. They also gave up two M16 rifles.
Both sub-leaders allegedly served under the command of the ASG kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) group operating in Indanan town that was previously led by the late “Apo Mike.”
Patrimonio said that Yadah and Tatto had been with the group of Apo Mike, or Majan Sahidjuan, since 2002 until the ASG leader was slain in a military operation in Languyan, Tawi-Tawi on March 21, 2021.
That operation resulted in the rescue of KFR victim Mohd Khairuldin, an Indonesian fisherman who was abducted by the ASG in Sulu Sea in January 2020.
“After the death of their leader, they were always on the run, no place to hide, exhausted, and often experienced starvation,” Patrimonio said.
“They no longer have the support of the community which prompted them to go back to the folds of the law,” he added.
According to Patrimonio, the two ASG men had been served with multiple warrants of arrest for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
In 2016, Tatto was accused of beheading Canadian KFR victims John Risdel and Robert Hall in Sulu, a year after the victims were abducted by the ASG on Samal Island in September 2015.
The military turned over Tatto and Yadah to the Sulu Provincial Police Office (PPO) for the processing of their cases.
“As the military formally handed the ASG returnees to us, they will properly undergo legal process,” said Police Col. Jaime Mojica, provincial director of the Sulu PPO.