CEBU CITY — A ranking police official and a “bomb expert” of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who figured in a suspected rescue attempt of the remnants of the bandit group which clashed with government troops in Inabanga and Clarin towns in Bohol were flown to Manila Tuesday morning.
This was confirmed by Chief Superintendent Noli Talino, director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 based in Camp Sergio Osmena in Cebu City.
Talino escorted Superintendent Maria Cristina Nobleza and alleged bomb expert Renierlo “Kurdi” Dongon on a commercial flight, which left Tagbilaran City in Bohol at 9:10 a.m. Tuesday.
Talino said Dongon and Nobleza, deputy chief of the crime laboratory in Davao, are considered high-risk personalities for having ties with the ASG.
They will be detained at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters, Talino said.
The police said that materials used to make an improvised explosive device was recovered in their rented apartment in Looc, Panglao, Bohol.
They arrived in Bohol last April 17, six days after four suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf were slain in a clash with government troops in Inabanga, Bohol.
Three soldiers and a policemen were also killed in the encounter.
Nobleza was on board a black Nissan Navara pickup driven by Dongon when they were arrested Saturday evening, hours after government troops clashed with suspected ASG members in Barangay Bacani, Clarin town in Bohol.
The vehicle drove past a military checkpoint, forcing the soldiers to chase and block the vehicle.
Dongon and Nobleza were later brought to the Clarin police station along with an elderly woman and a 13-year-old boy who were with the two inside the pickup.
Reports said police recovered from the pickup male underwears, T-shirts, shorts for men, medical kits, canned goods, biscuits and bottles of energy drink. EB/ebp/PNA-northboundasia.com