2 bandits surrender

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Two Abu Sayyaf bandits surrendered to the military in Talipao, Sulu on Saturday.

Sibakkal Salahuddin, 55, and Isbain Sakilan, 49, turned over their firearms to the Army’s 2nd Special Forces Battalion in Barangay Upper Sinumaan.

Brig. Gen. Eugenio Boquio, 1101st Brigade commander, received the surrenderees in Sitio Timpuad, Barangay Upper Sinumaan, a village that is being proposed as a site for bandits who decide to return to the fold of the law.

Salahuddin and Sakilan surrendered to the members of the 6th Special Forces Company who were conducting mass base operations and community support programs in the village, Boquio said.

The mass base operations of the Special Forces in Talipao resulted in the surrender of 14 Abu Sayyaf bandits since September last year.

During the debriefing, Salahuddin and Sakilan told authorities that they were forced to join the Abu Sayyaf bandit group after they figured in a clan war in 2000.