Abu terrorist not yet off the hook – DND

From the Manila Times (Apr 5): Abu terrorist not yet off the hook – DND

Despite his surrender to the military, Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Nhurhassan Jamiri still needs to face the law for “capital offenses,” according to the Department of National Defense (DND).

DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday said justice should be served those who were victimized by the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) that is based in Basilan province in southern Mindanao.

Lorenzana pointed out that all members of the ASG without exception are accountable for kidnapping and other crimes.

“We will not [let them off the hook]. We still must look at the capital offenses they had committed. We cannot let them escape [from those offenses]. We have to serve justice to those who were killed, those they kidnapped, those they beheaded. We cannot just let them walk freely with those offenses,” he said in a chance interview.

Lorenzana said operations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Jolo in Sulu province, also in Mindanao, had forced Jamiri to escape to Malaysia, where he was recently caught.

“He was being chased there [Malaysia]. They [Philippine military authorities] thought that he was killed there but he was not and maybe, [he]found out that the President [Rodrigo Duterte] was willing to offer some benefits to [him]if [he returns]to the fold of the law,” he told reporters.

Last week, Jamiri, along with his 13 of his followers, surrendered to Joint Task Force Basilan and turned over 10 high-powered firearms, 40 assorted ammunition magazines and 651 pieces of live ammunition.

Prior to the surrender, President Duterte went to Sulu to meet the Abu Sayyaf rebels who had given up fighting and even committed benefits such as housing.

The same commitment was made too to communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who had also turned themselves in to the military.

http://www.manilatimes.net/abu-terrorist-not-yet-off-the-hook-dnd/390462/