Rebellion charges filed vs suspected recruits of Maute group at justice department
Rebellion charges have been filed against 59 suspected recruits of the Maute terrorist group with their alleged recruiter before the justice department late Fridayt.
Escorted by police commandos, they were presented before prosecutors headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong after being flown to Manila from Zamboanga on Friday through a C-130 plane.
Also presented was Moro National Liberation Front member Nur Supian who was pointed by the suspects as their recruiter.
Ong set preliminary investigation on August 14 when the suspects are to give their counter-affidavits
They are detained in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs chief, said 33 were accosted in a military checkpoint in Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur around 10:15 pm Tuesday.
He said 27 were seized from a house in Guiwan, Zamboanga City on the same day.
Arevalo said the suspects were held for questioning “ covert acts tending to reinforce the Maute-ISIS terrorists fighting government forces in Marawi.”
“When asked, they claimed that they were members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and that they were headed to Camp Jabalnur in Lanao del Sur for a purported training prior integration to the regular force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),” he said.
“The group arrested in Guiwan averred they were part of the group arrested in Ipil,” he added.
Arevalo said a quick verification was made with the MNLF and it denied neither links with the group nor existence of such training.
He said the government authorities confiscated military and police uniforms from said 60 individuals.
Arevalo emphasized the importance of the extension of martial law in Mindanao in restricting suspicious people
"With Martial Law in force in entire Mindanao, we can validly restrict and effect arrests of suspicious persons and unscrupulous groups whose actions bear with the rebellion,” he said. DMS/Robina Asido
