ZAMBOANGA CITY—A notorious Abu Sayyaf bandit with P500,000 price on his head and one of those allegedly involved in last year’s beheading of a Marine killed in an ambush was arrested by combined police and military forces in Basilan, a police official disclosed Monday.

The Basilan police commander, Senior Supt. Salik Macapantar, said Sali Tungkal Alih alias Salim was arrested around 7:30 p.m. Friday on Quezon Boulevard, barangay Matatag, Lamitan City.

Macapantar told reporters that Salim was arrested on the strength of several warrants of arrest by a combined police and military team, who chanced upon him on Quezon Boulevard.

He said that Salim is the subject of nine warrants of arrest issued by various court where he is facing mostly murder cases and a P500,000 reward for his arrest.

“He [Salim] was found out to be one of the 130 gunmen involved in the beheading of Marines last year,” Macapantar said.

Ten of the 14 Marines who were killed in an ambush in barangay Guinanta, Al-barka, Basilan, on July 10, 2006 were beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf bandits, who were reportedly backed by rouge Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas.

The government has filed a criminal case against the Abu Sayyaf bandits and 130 people were identified as respondents of the case.

Macapantar said that Salim is a mid-level leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf bandits under Commander Puruji Indama. The group operates in Basilan.

Salim is now undergoing tactical interrogation, Macapantar said.

Military troops are continuously pursuing the Abu Sayyaf bandits while undertaking humanitarian projects in Basilan, and Sulu.

This developed as the MILF on Monday branded “wild and unfounded” the police claim that a member of the front’s Special Operations Group (SOG) was behind the May 29 bombing outside a military base in this city.

MILF deputy chairman for information committee issued the statement on Monday and cited five reasons “to undertake that [May 29] bombing mission in Zamboanga City is most unlikely and unnatural.”

Senior Supt. Lurimer Detran, Zamboanga City police officer in charge, said Salahuddin Hassan, a member of the MILF-SOG, is the principal suspect in the May 29 bombing outside Col. Edwin Andrews Air Base (EAAB) in barangay Santa Maria, this city, that killed two people and injured 21 others.

Detran disclosed that Hassan was identified by a former MILF member through the artist’s sketch that the local police sent to the different government intelligence units in Mindanao.

Detran said the statement of the former MILF member, who said the artist’s sketch resembles Hassan, is “credible.” The former MILF member has been enrolled in the Witness Protection Program of the justice department.

Musa said that even granting that Hassan is a member of the MILF-SOG, to undertake that bombing mission in Zamboanga City is most unlikely and unnatural.

Musa cited following reasons: The MILF does not target noncombatants, in addition to the fact that the cease-fire agreement is still in effect; the front will not get good publicity in killing civilians, not to state the fact that it is strictly forbidden in Islam to kill, harm, or terrorize noncombatants; someone from another region to undertake a mission in a faraway area, unfamiliar with the terrain, cannot speak the local dialects, and has no relatives around, is absurd; it is more expensive to send someone from fa araway place than to employ a local expert; and the likelihood of exposure or being caught is greater, considering the distance between Zamboanga City and Maguindanao or Shariff Kabunsuan provinces.

He also questioned the credibility of the witness, whom police identified as a former MILF member.

“Anyone in custody will sing whatever song his captors would want him to sing,” he said, adding that “making provocative and inflammatory statement against the MILF is a violation of the cease-fire.”

Meanwhile, explosive demolition experts of Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ) and the local police retrieved 256 pieces of assorted anti-tank and antipersonnel explosives in a barangay west of downtown, this city.

Supt. Jose Bayani Gucela, Western Mindanao police Explosives and Ordnance Demolition team chief, disclosed that the explosives were retrieved on Saturday near a chapel in Purok 1, barangay Malagutay.

Gucela, who is the concurrent Western Mindanao police information officer, said the explosives were unearthed by construction workers who are repairing the chapel.

The explosives, buried several feet deep, were believed to have been kept in the area during World War II.

The recovered explosives include 160 rounds of 75mm anti-tank rockets, 72 fuses model PDF M46 and 24 antipersonnel mines.

Taxis must issue receipts, SC rules

THE Supreme Court (SC) has denied the petition filed by major taxi operators seeking to stop the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) from implementing several memorandum circulars imposing standards and regulations for taxi and mega taxi units, including the issuance of taxi meter receipts.

A KIDNAP for ransom and robbery group allegedly responsible for the abduction of a bank executive last week has been busted with the arrest of its 10 members, including its leader, in a series of operations in Metro Manila, and Nueva Ecija.

THE 125,000-strong National Police will implement on Tuesday a nationwide security and public-safety plan for the opening of classes around the country.

AT least seven persons, most of them minors, were rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from an alleged human-trafficking syndicate in an operation in North Harbor, Manila.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A notorious Abu Sayyaf bandit with P500,000 price on his head and one of those allegedly involved in last year’s beheading of a Marine killed in an ambush was arrested by combined police and military forces in Basilan, a police official disclosed Monday.

THE whole Alaminos City, in Pangasinan, has been placed in a state of calamity after Typhoon Cosme wrought damage to property estimated at P238 million, or almost as big as the city’s total budget for 2008.

THE Metro Manila police command has activated a task force to track down the policeman who is suspected of involvement in the killing of two Commission on Elections officials.