Two down, 18 active names left now on Esscom's wanted list

From the Daily Express (Jul 7, 2022): Two down, 18 active names left now on Esscom's wanted list (By: Zam Yusa)

Bensito Quitino (wearing cap) a.k.a. Ben Tatoh Quirino, and his brother Almujer Yadah, both wanted by Esscom, surrendered in Sulu in June this year. (Screengrabs/collage: iBrabo)KOTA KINABALU: Two down, 18 active names are now remaining on Malaysia's list of wanted Abu Sayyaf terrorists and transborder criminals.

An Abu Sayyaf sub-leader, Bensito Quitino, who surrendered to the Philippine military recently, turned out to be wanted by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).

The Philippine military on June 17 said Quitino surrendered along with his brother Almujer Yadah. A few days later, Daily Express reported Yadah was wanted by Esscom.

However, Daily Express missed Quitino as also being on the wanted list, because of Filipino militants' many aliases and varying spelling versions of their nicknames.

Often, different authorities in different countries use different spellings of a terrorist's name or different names altogether, causing confusion.

For one, Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Madjid Said, wanted by Esscom and designated by the Philippines as a terrorist, is also known as Ammah Patit, Padin Padul, Pading and Amah Sah.

While the Philippine media widely reported the surrenderer as "Bensito Quitino", only a few news outlets also mentioned his alias “Ben Tatto”.

Esscom’s wanted list, meanwhile, lists Quitino as “Ben Tatoh Quirino”.

"Ben Tatoh is also wanted by us (apart from Almujer Yadah)," Esscom commander DCP Hamzah Ahmad confirmed to Daily Express when contacted.

"Yes, we have 18 active names remaining on the list. We'll take a look at the list and we may update it in the future.

"Again, I'd like to stress that we at Esscom are working closely with our Philippine counterpart regarding what intelligence we can glean from the surrendered terrorists."

The Philippine military, in the June-17 press conference, said Yadah and Quitino had given themselves up in Jolo, Sulu, southern Philippines and surrendered their assault rifles.

The two were accused of beheading two Canadians and a German who was kidnapped while sailing off Sabah.

Quitino or Ben Tatto was actually put by Esscom on its wanted list a few years ago, but he was later taken off after reports of his death in southern Philippines.

However, this writer's report for the Daily Express in early January 2019 revealed Tatto had resurfaced on Facebook with fresh photos in late 2018.

A few days later, Esscom issued an updated list with the Abu Sayyaf man back on it.

Canadian intelligence research group iBrabo had earlier supplied this reporter the militant's photos from purportedly his Facebook account, which was later deleted.

A Canadian news report said Tatto appeared to be an ambitious figure in that Facebook post, with an associate calling him the "Big Boss," while fighters posed for pictures with him.

Immediately after beheading the two Canadian tourists in 2016, Tatto went off radar, but he resurfaced in that Facebook post in 2018.

In June 2019, Islamic State-aligned militants in southern Philippines re-pledged their allegiance to the terror group and Tatto was featured prominently in the video, iBrabo told this reporter in a public Twitter exchange in 2020.

"Despite surge efforts by the Philippine military and being on the most wanted list 3 times, efforts to capture or kill Tattoh have thus far failed," iBrabo said in that tweet.

Yadah and Tatto are considered among the “most notorious” of the group’s men, Washington-based news site BenarNews reported Joint Task Force (JTF)-Sulu commander Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio as saying.

“They have many cases, with warrants of arrest, ranging from kidnapping for ransom and many others [against them].”

The surrender of the two sub-leaders, which was facilitated by military and police units, has dealt “serious leadership and organization setbacks” to the Abu Sayyaf, said Lt. Col. Alaric delos Santos, JTF-Sulu civil military operations officer, in the BenarNews report.

The reason for the surrender? “Because they were always on the run, have no place to hide, [were] exhausted and often experienced starvation,” he said.

“They also revealed that they no longer have the support of the community and were asked to stay away from the community,” said delos Santos.

Esscom's full list of 20 Filipinos is as follows: Madjid Said @ Ammah Patit, Mudzrimar @ Mundi Sawadjaan, Ahadin Hussein, Ellam Sajirin @ Nasirin, Ismurah Jirah, Salip Mura, Al Munjir Yadah, Ben Tatoh Quirino, Basaron Arok, Mujimar Sawadjaan @ Rasad, Marajan @ Manajan Asiri, Jul Aksan Abdurajan @ Halimaw, Jul @ Jun Hasan, Barak Undog @ Alvin, Hamsan Pakkan @ Black Cobra, Sabri Madrasul @ Salip Jul, Hadji Wahad @ Talip, Tampi @ Bunju, Haibin Mubin @ Apo Kuhambo and Sangbas Parisko.

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/195494/two-down-18-names-left-now-on-esscom-s-wanted-list/