ZAMBOANGA CITY, 7 November 2005 — A day after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s announcement of the arrest of a notorious extremist leader in the southern Philippines, police yesterday said the suspect has turned out to be just a look-alike.
Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao apologized for the mistake and said the man mistaken for Radulan Sahiron would be returned to his family.
Police claimed on Saturday that the notorious Abu Sayyaf leader was cornered in his hideout on the village of Kitabog in Titay town in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Arroyo went on to announce the arrest even before police could confirm his identity.
“I would like to commend our police and soldiers because at 4:30 p.m. they caught the notorious Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron, who has five million pesos on his head,” the president said on television.
Arroyo followed that up with a statement yesterday praising the achievement as “a high-water mark” in the country’s campaign against terrorism.
“Every achievement such as this, however, should be a reminder that evil never sleeps and we must never let our guard down,” she added.
“I ask our law enforcers, backed by vigilant local governments and communities, to follow the trail and rake up the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf,” Arroyo said. “We have a commitment to our people, to our neighbors in Southeast Asia and to the world to be a strong player in the security front.”
Saturday’s raid conducted by a crack team from the elite Special Action Force (SAF) and intelligence agents in Titay town was apparently top secret that even the provincial police chief and military commanders in the region were clueless.
Some military officials in the troubled south said they did not expect Sahiron to go to Zamboanga Sibugay in mainland Mindanao as he felt safer in the island of Jolo, where he and his group operates.
The surprised officials turned out to be correct.
“We made an announcement last night that we got him,” Lomibao said in a statement. “We got one all right, but only a look-alike.”
“It is but right to correct that mistake and bring back the person invited for questioning to his family. We assure everyone that his rights were not violated,” he said.
The one-armed extremist leader is wanted both by the Philippine and United States government for a series of terrorism and kidnapping cases in the troubled southern Philippines.
Sahiron, a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), lost his right arm at the height of the secessionist rebellion in the 1970s in Jolo.
He joined the Abu Sayyaf in the late 1990s and became one of the group’s top commander for Jolo.
The military tagged Sahiron as one of those behind the series of attacks and killings in the island, including the kidnappings of 21 mostly Asian and Western holiday-makers in a raid on the island resort of Sipadan off Sabah, Malaysia in 2001.
His group was implicated in the kidnappings of three Hong Kong and a Malaysian fishery workers off Jolo in 1998 and dozens of Filipino missionaries on the island.
Washington also put up a $5 million bounty for Sahiron’s capture and has deployed American troops to the southern Philippines to train and arm Filipino soldiers battling militants.
The mistaken arrest showed the difficulty of the war on terrorism, Lomibao said.
“The fight against terrorism is a long, tedious and emotional battle,” he said. “Along the way, there are hits and misses.”
It was also not the first time that Arroyo, eager to show progress in her campaign against extremists, made such a premature announcement. (With input from Associated Press)
