Police arrest ASG ‘infiltrator’ in Sulu PNP

PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief General Guillermo Eleazar ordered the Pnpinternal Affairs Service to fasttrack the dismissal proceedings against a police non-uniformed personnel (NUP) who turned out to be a finance and logistics liaison officer for the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu.

Eleazar issued the directive as he tasked the PNP to conduct a deeper probe into the case of Masckur Adoh Patarasa and determine whether there are other policemen who could be involved with the ASG and other lawless groups in Mindanao.

Patarasa, an NUP assigned with the Banguingui Municipal Police Station in Banguingui, Sulu was arrested during an operation on Friday at Barangay Asturias in Jolo, Sulu by a joint team of policemen and soldiers.

He had been the subject of arrest warrants for seven cases of kidnapping and serious illegal detention and was also included in the Martial Law Arrest Order No. 1, which the government issued out of the Marawi siege in 2017.

Patarasa is a brother in law of the late ASG commander Isnilon Hapilon, the “emir” of the Islamic State in Southeast Asia who was killed during the Marawi siege.

Police records revealed that in May 2017, Patarasa, together with an unidentified individual linked with the ASG planned to transact the sending of funds to ASG members fighting in Marawi City through Hapilon.

Eleazar said Patarasa joined the ASG in 2001 under Khadaffy Janjalani in Basilan and later shifted to ASG senior leader Radullan Sahiron in Sulu.

Patarasa is known to have a direct contact with Jemaah Islamiyah operative Amin Baco alias Guro Jihad and other ASG personalities. He had also received funds from Almaida Salvin, a designated terrorist included in the US Treasury’s sanctions list who was arrested sometime in April 2019 for illegal possession of explosives through Merhama Sawari, who was neutralized during a shootout in Parañaque City together with three suspected terrorists on June 20, 2020.