MANILA – Quezon City police arrested Friday a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) charged earlier with murder and who had been masking his identity by posing as a tricycle driver in an urban poor community.
The director of the QC Police District (QCPD), Police Chief Superintendent Guillermo Lorenzo T Eleazar, reported the arrest of Abdulmuin Yahiya alyas Jayson, alias Mauhmin Yahya, to National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief, Director Oscar D. Albayalde, on Saturday.
Yahiya was arrested by personnel of the District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) headed by PSupt Rogarth Campo, with National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NCR-NICA) and Naval Intelligence and Security Group (NISG) of the Philippine Navy personnel, by virtue of a warrant for his arrest.
Eleazar said Yahiya, 35, had resided on Basilan St., Salaam Compound in, Barangay Culiat for three years, and was the subject of a warrant issued by Judge Leo Jay T. Principe of the Isabela City, Basilan Regional Trial Court, with no provision for bail, in August 2006.
Yahiya is suspected to be an Abu Sayyaf member because of his close association with Hadji Taufik Sanihin Yahiya alyas Nonong Yakan or alias Nonong Yahiya, known to be one of the hard-core members of ASG, and who is also wanted for 9 counts of murder and 4 counts of frustrated murder.
Yahiya was arrested at about 10:00 a.m., December 15, 2017, at Tandang Sora Avenue, Quezon City, after DSOU personnel learned that he was hiding in the Salaam Compound as a tricycle driver. His neighbors as well as the leaders of the compound were unaware that he was a wanted person.
They coordinated with the Salaam Compound tribal and community leaders with whom the QCPD is in constant contact since the compound was cleared of drug dens and drug addicts last year.
Eleazar commended the operatives for good police work in locating the suspect and arresting Yahya.