Policemen clamped down a member of the Dawlah Islamiya, wanted for more than 10 criminal cases pending in different courts, in an operation in Barangay Kaya-Kaya in Datu Abdullah Sangki, Maguindanao del Sur on Tuesday, June 24.
Local executives and members of different municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao del Sur who supported the anti-terror operation told reporters on Thursday, June 26, that the now detained Usman Abdulla is wanted for arson, multiple murder, illegal possession of firearms and home-made explosives, robbery, extortion, trafficking of narcotics and carnapping.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Thursday that the suspect is now locked in a tightly-guarded detention facility, awaiting prosecution for his criminal offenses.
De Guzman said the operation that resulted in his arrest was together carried out by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, different units of PRO-BAR in Maguindanao del Sur and officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office.
Ranking officials of different units of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade in the province had told reporters that Abdulla, also known as Abu Usama and Junard Darino, was implicated in more than a dozen deadly bombings in Central Mindanao from July 2016 to February 2020.
They also confirmed to reporters that Abdulla is a longtime member of both the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that have a reputation for bombing buses and commercial establishments to compel owners to shell out “protection money” and for espousing hatred for non-Muslims.
Both groups had been weakened dramatically by the surrender to units of PRO-BAR and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering central Mindanao of 617 members in the past five years, all reintegrated to mainstream society with the help of different government agencies in Region 12 and in the Bangsamoro region.
De Guzman said it was local officials and traditional Moro leaders in Datu Saudi Ampatuan and in nearby towns who reported the presence of Abdulla in Barangay Kaya-Kaya, enabling officials of the CIDG-BAR and PRO-BAR’s intelligence units to locate him the area and serve him the warrants for his arrest.
Four of the more than 10 warrants for his arrest had not recommended bail for his temporary release from detention while undergoing judicial litigation for the high-profile cases he is facing in different courts in Central Mindanao. (June 26, 2025, Cotabato City)