COTABATO CITY (November 15, 2025) — Line agencies in Region 9 and the Bangsamoro regional government will cooperate in reintegrating to the local communities the 89 members of the defunct Abu Sayyaf terror group and the New People’s Army who have pledged allegiance the government during a symbolic rite in a regional police camp on Friday, November 14.
Many of the Abu Sayyaf members who promised to reform for good before police officials and local executives, during a ceremony at Camp Col. Romeo A. Abendan in Barangay Mercedes in Zamboanga City on Friday, are from island towns in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The 89 former Abu Sayyaf terrorists and NPA guerillas surrendered in batches to different units of the Police Regional Office-9 in recent months, according PRO-9’s director, Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta, and officials of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, among them its chief, Army Major Gen. Donald Gumiran.
Matta and senior officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region separately told reporters on Friday that the 89 erstwhile members of the Abu Sayyaf and NPAs agreed to come out and return to the fold of law through the intercession of police units in Region 9 and in BARMM and local executives supporting inter-agency efforts to reintroduce members of both groups to mainstream society.
“Local government units played key roles in securing their surrender,” Matta, who has jurisdiction over police units in the Zamboanga peninsula and in Sulu, said.
Officials of the BARMM government said they will help return to their municipalities the Abu Sayyaf from different towns in the autonomous region who surrendered to units of PRO-9 in recent months.
Local executives, officials of the Basilan Provincial Police Office and the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade together declared Basilan “Abu Sayyaf free” last June, a result of a multi-sector cooperation, that lasted for a decade, in securing the surrender of 649 members of the group in the island province via backchannel dialogues and community-based humanitarian interventions, all of them reunited with families.
Photo shows an Abu Sayyaf member turning over his assault rifle to police officials during Friday’s surrender rite at the headquarters of the PRO-9 in Zamboanga City.