Tight security in Cebu after capture of Sayyaf man

CEBU – Authorities have tightened security in Cebu following the capture of an Abu Sayyaf militant linked to the kidnapping of the son of a Zamboanga del Norte mayor in September 2017.

Jimmy Marababol has been accused in the kidnapping of Jade Quimbo, whose father Eddie is the mayor of Labason town. Marababol was tracked down by the police and captured in the village called Tinago in Cebu City where he traded rice as a living.

It was unknown how Marababol managed to escape authorities in Mindanao and fled to Cebu, but regional police chief Brig. Gen.

Valeriano de Leon said the militant has been hiding here since last year.

Intelligence reports said Marababol is also a member of the PRO-ISIS group Dawlah Islamiya which is fighting for the establishment of a caliphate in the South. It was not immediately known if there are other Abu Sayyaf or Dawlah Islamiya fighters hiding in Cebu or if any local group is harboring them.

Abu Sayyaf militants released Quimbo - then 28 years old – in Sulu’s Patikul town on December 2018. He was handed over to his brother Justin, who reportedly sought assistance from local leaders to fetch the victim in Anuling village. It was unknown whether Quimbo’s family had paid ransom to the Abu Sayyaf or not.

The Abu Sayyaf – founded in the early 1990 in Basilan province – which was originally fighting for a separate Islamic state, has resorted to ransom kidnapping after its chieftain Abdurajak Janjalani was killed in a firefight with a policeman in Lamitan City in December 1998. But some of its hard core commanders pledged allegiance with ISIS in an effort to capitalize in the vicious and brutal campaign of the jihadists in the Middle East. (Cebu Examiner)