Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issues order against suspected terrorists. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday issued an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) against 125 individuals tagged as members and supporters of local terror groups Maute and Abu Sayyaf.
The Justice Chief issued the ILBO following the arrest order issued by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in his capacity as administrator of martial law.
The arrest order was the first issued under the implementation of martial law and suspension of writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao as government troops continued to battle Maute members who attacked Marawi City last week.
The four-page order contains mostly aliases. It was directed to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and NBI for implementation.
“As a matter of fact ang tawag dun ay (it’s called) arrest order number one. Because of that I ordered the issuance of an LBO at least dun sa (for the) individuals listed in that arrest warrant,” Aguirre told reporters in chance interview in DOJ.
Aguirre said he is also determining whether there is still a need to come up with a new order for the Bureau of Immigration, in lieu of a hold departure order, which only the court has the authority to issue.
Aguirre called the new measure as a “ DOJ Detention Order” which would compel immigration authorities to arrest and immediately detain those on the arrest order list provided by the Department of National Defense (DND) even without an HDO.
“Kinakailangan natin (We need) a new name to warn our Bureau of Immigration officers or anybody na (that) these are dangerous people na (so) they are subject to arrest immediately,” he explained.
As to the involvement of foreign terrorists with the Maute group, he said that they are now verifying the 138 names on the list if they are purely Filipinos.
Asked if there were foreigners listed in the arrest order, the DOJ chief answered: “Wala namang nakalagay doon (kung ano ang specific nationality), pero I believe na marami doon mga Filipinos. Possible din naman na may mga foreign terrorists doon. Sapagkat naidentify natin ang ilang terrorists from Indonesia, from the Middle East, at meron ngang parang Saudi Arabia.”
(The nationalities were not shown on the list but I believe many are Filipinos. It’s possible there are foreigners who are listed, We have previously identified terrorists from Indonesia, the Middle East and even from Saudi Arabia.)