US affirms support for PH anti-terror drive as FBI confirms Hapilon’s death

The prompt, positive identification of killed Abu Sayyaf Group leader Isnilon Hapilon based on a DNA test is another example of how the United States is supporting its “friend, partner, and ally” – the Philippines – in combatting terrorism, the US Embassy in Manila stated.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that one of the DNA samples submitted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was indeed that of Hapilon.

“Did you know that at the request of the AFP, a representative of the US Embassy in the Philippines Legal Attaché office hand carried DNA samples taken from Hapilon’s body to Quntico in Virginia for identity verification,” US Embassy Press Attache Molly Koscina told the media in brief statement released Sunday morning.

Quantico, about 40 miles north of Washington, DC, is home to the FBI Academy and the bureau’s state-ofthe-art forensics laboratory.

“This is yet another example of how the US is supporting our friend, partner, and ally in the fight against terror,” Koscina said.

The US government, through the FBI, has placed a US$5-million bounty for Hapilon’s capture, while the Philippine government dangled a 110 million bounty for Hapilon and 15 million for Omar Maute, one of the leaders of the Maute terrorist group.

Last Friday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced they have received an official report from the FBI confirming that samples taken from a body recovered in Marawi matches that of Hapilon.

“This process of verification is also being conducted on the cadavers of other terrorists that have been recovered so far,” Lorenzana said in a statement.

When asked about the DNA test results of Omar Maute and other terrorists who were also killed in Marawi, the US Embassy official said: “I’ve shared the information I have at this time.”