A police photo released to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner shows a captured Abu Sayyaf militant Rocco Haman, whose group was tagged in the gruesome murder of over a dozen Christian farmers in Basilan province in 2001.
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police here are holding an Abu Sayyaf militant tagged in the gruesome murder of over a dozen farmers in Basilan province in 2001, officials said Wednesday.
Officials said Rocco Haman was arrested Tuesday afternoon near a restaurant in downtown Zamboanga and is currently under interrogation.
It was unknown how the 38-year old Haman managed to escape arrest in Basilan, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region, but officials have said that the militant is facing a string of criminal charges in connection with the mass killings.
Haman’s group abducted the mostly Christian farmers in Tairan village in Lantawan town and used them as shield against pursuing soldiers and later beheaded them one at a time.
Officials said Haman managed to settle in Zamboanga City where he rented a house in Talon-Talon village where police eventually tracked him down and put him under surveillance until his capture.
Chief Superintendent Billy Beltran, the regional police commander, praised Haman’s arrest and lauded those who took part in the successful operation led by Chief Inspector Hazel Fernandez. “It is a job well done,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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