Authorities have arrested a member of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group who has been wanted for the 2001 kidnapping and killing of plantation workers in Basilan.
National Bureau of Investigation deputy spokesperson Auralyn Pascual identified the suspected ASG member as Salahim Dawani, alias “Abu Moadz.”
Dawani was arrested last March 6 by joint elements of the NBI and the Philippine National Police who served an arrest warrant against him in Barangay Maharlika, Taguig City where he has been in hiding.
“The arrest warrant is by virtue of the cases that he committed some years back on serious illegal detention and kidnapping,” said Pascual.
Dawani is among those charged before the Basilan Regional Trial Court which issued the arrest warrant over the multiple counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention concerning the abduction of workers from the Gloden Harvest Plantation in Tairan in Lantawan, Basilan.
Pascual said witnesses identified him in the beheading of two Golden Harvest workers identified as Primitivo Falcasantos and Crisanto Suela. (Jeffrey Damicog)