Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers and Muslim Concerns Secretary Abdullah “Dabs” Mama-o met belligerent Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader Abdullah Macapaar, also known as “Commander Bravo,” who was said to have established his own “government” in Mindanao, last December 10 in the latter’s lair in Lanao del Sur.
The President last month gave Mama-o 20 days to get rid of Bravo whose group is allegedly getting payoffs from drug dealers and distributors from Metro Manila, Cavite, Batangas, the Visayas, and other parts of the country who had come down to Lanao to hide from authorities.
“In line with President Duterte’s directive, I immediately sought a meeting with Commander Bravo. We held the meeting inside a mosque in his mountain hideout in Lanao del Sur in the presence of his men,” said Mama-o.
According to the official, Bravo clarified that his operations in the MILF Northwestern Mindanao Front, were, in fact, in support of the President’s war on drugs.
Mama-o added that Bravo asserted it was the drug syndicates who cooked up wrong information that reached the President to make it appear he was setting up a separate government. (Elena L. Aben)