PUBLIO BRIONES III:

Well, what do you know? The Americans finally got something right. I have to admit, I initially scoffed at the idea of terrorist groups swooping in on unsuspecting foreign travelers and whisking them away to await an uncertain fate. But there you have it. Government troops— the military, air force, police—engaged suspected members of the Jihadist militant group Abu Sayyaf in a gun battle in Sitio Ylaya, Barangay Napo, Inabanga, Bohol last Tuesday morning, two days after the US Embassy issued a travel advisory urging its citizens to reconsider traveling to this part of the archipelago. I still don’t think they were there to kidnap anyone, foreign or otherwise.

Well, what do you know? The Americans finally got something right. I have to admit, I initially scoffed at the idea of terrorist groups swooping in on unsuspecting foreign travelers and whisking them away to await an uncertain fate.

But there you have it. Government troops— the military, air force, police—engaged suspected members of the Jihadist militant group Abu Sayyaf in a gun battle in Sitio Ylaya, Barangay Napo, Inabanga, Bohol last Tuesday morning, two days after the US Embassy issued a travel advisory urging its citizens to reconsider traveling to this part of the archipelago.

I still don’t think they were there to kidnap anyone, foreign or otherwise.

According to one report, the group was visiting a female companion who had married a local. The two met in Manila. The woman, who is from Zamboanga, reportedly has links to the Maute group.

The couple must have hit it off because the husband, later identified as Joselito “Titong” Melloria, converted to Islam and started making pilgrimages to Mindanao.

Titong’s long-time neighbor Belen Vistal couldn’t believe that he would betray their close-knit community.

But last Monday, he was spotted along with around 10 armed men in three pump boats on the Inabanga River. Alarmed residents immediately reported their presence to authorities.

Hence, the gunfire the next morning that scared the heck out of Vistal, while the 51-yearold was making breakfast.

Vistal told SunStar Cebu that Titong’s mother had left over the weekend. Maybe he had asked her to leave so she wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire. If that was the case, then the group was expecting trouble.

However, Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto pointed out that maybe Titong and his friends were there to bide their time while they planned whatever dastardly thing it was they planned to do. That maybe their target was not Inabanga or even Bohol, but Cebu.

Inabanga is so close to Cebu. So close that if you ask a local, they’ll use their finger to point and not their lips. The town is, after all, right across Carcar City.

Then again, maybe the group wanted to spoil the upcoming Asean meetings that are set to take place in Panglao next week.

Maybe they wanted to crash the gathering to embarrass the Duterte administration, which has been hounding the group’s members since the President took power. I really don’t know. These are all conjectures. What I do know is that there are still suspected Abu Sayyaf members on the loose in Bohol. That the clash claimed the lives of three soldiers and one policeman. That some 1,200 people have been driven out of their homes.