Lost in Bohol?

If there is anything that the contents of the cellular phones recovered from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) elements who entered Bohol weeks ago showed, it is that, one, they idolize the Middle East terrorist group Isis and that the arrested Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza may have deeper knowledge on the Abu Sayyaf plan in that province that what she was willing to divulge.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 Chief Royina Garma divulged this latest development in their investigation into the Abu offensive in Bohol to reporters recently. In the process, she raised the possibility that what happened was a botched operation that happened because the Abus in three pumpboats numbering 11 terrorists were largely ignorant of the terrain in Bohol.

This is an interesting theory, one that could answer some of the questions we raised earlier. Like, why would the Abus be in Inabanga town, which is in the province’s northern side when its tourism destination is in the southern portion, notably in Tagbilaran City and the island of Panglao? That they may have gotten lost could explain why they headed to Inabanga, the former residence of the Abu recruit Joselito Melloria.

Like we said, getting to the bottom of the Abu Sayyaf foray into Bohol is important if we want to adequately prepare for whatever the terrorist group will plan for Bohol and Central Visayas in the future. That is why it would have been good if authorities were able to extract information from the Abus themselves. But all of the Abus who figured in clashes with government troops have been killed and the only one who was arrested was killed only a few hours after.

Here, the information that Nobleza could provide would have become doubly important, but it looks like she and her companion, Renierlo Dongon, may also not provide it. That is why we are holding on to the morsels of information that we can gather from the contents of the cellphones of Nobleza and the dead Abus—and hopefully from the information sourced from the Abu’s turf in Mindanao.