2 Pinoy tipsters to get $500,000 reward from US

Two Filipinos will share a $500,000 reward from the United States government for a tip that led to the arrest of a key terror suspect in Mindanao last year, the US Embassy said yesterday.

Hilarion del Rosario Santos III, the alleged head of the Rajah Sulayman Movement, a group of Christian converts to Islam that has been closely associated with al-Qaeda-linked militants, was arrested in Zamboanga City in October together with six other suspects.

His group is believed to have links to Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Abu Sayyaf, which is operating in the southern Philippines, and was suspected in the February 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila that killed 116 people and the simultaneous bombings in the cities of Makati, General Santos and Davao a year later, which killed eight people.

Santos was also connected to plots to attack the US Embassy in Manila and American citizens, the embassy said.

It said the money, to be presented Wednesday, comes from the US State Department "Rewards for Justice" program, which provides cash rewards for information leading to the arrests of terrorists involved in acts against Americans.

US Embassy press attaché Matthew Lussenhop said Ambassador Kristie Kenney will witness the ceremony, but declined to say whether she will be the one to present the reward.

Washington also offered $11 million for two JI terrorists believed hiding in Mindanao after intelligence reports cited them as trainers of terrorist groups in the country.

The US State Department had authorized rewards of up to $10 million for Dulmatin, allegedly one of the masterminds of the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, while a $1-million reward was offered for Umar Patek.

The embassy said the reward offered for Dulmatin is the second highest reward offered under the Rewards for Justice program and it is exceeded only by the $25 million offered for terrorist Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Dulmatin is an electronics specialist who trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and is a senior figure in the JI. Patek is believed to have served as the assistant for the field coordinator of the 2002 Bali bombings.

The embassy said the US is "determined to bring these men to justice for their crimes."

The Rewards for Justice Program offers citizens in the Philippines and around the world an opportunity to contribute to the battle against terrorism.

Since it was established in 1984, the program has paid more than $62 million to more than 40 people who provided credible information that resulted in the capture or death of terrorists or prevented acts of international terrorism.

On Oct. 25, 2005, the US Embassy paid three Basilan residents P18.7 million each for providing information that enabled the Armed Forces of the Philippines to locate Hamsiraji Sali, also known as Jose Ramirez, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group that kidnapped and murdered Filipino and American nationals. Sali was killed in an ensuing firefight with the AFP. — With AP