By Fernan Marasigan
Manila Times


The Philippine National Police (PNP) announced yesterday that DNA test results have established the identity of notorious Filipino bomber Abdul Basit Usman, as the individual who was killed in an alleged armed clash with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao on
May 3.
The PNP Crime Laboratory confirmed the maternal relationship between the DNA profile of skin tissue specimen taken from the body of Usman with the DNA profile of his mother. Another DNA match was also established between Usman and his nephew.
Besides the DNA test results, police investigators also obtained sworn statements of two barangay (village) officials in Guindulungan, Maguindanao, who positively identified the cadaver of “Ahmad Akmad Batabol Usman” (Basit Usman). Both barangay officials were also able to take snapshot photos of Usman’s body using their own camera phones.
The PNP officer-in-charge, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, said these conclusive test results as corroborated by statements of witnesses’ affirmed earlier pronouncements by the military that Usman and some of his followers were killed in a gunbattle with members of the MILF 106th Brigade on May 3 in Sitio Balas, Barangay Upper Muti, Guindulungan, Maguindanao.
The PNP Crime Laboratory earlier collected saliva samples through buccal swab from Singkorya Dagkog Usman, mother of Basit, and his nephew Hairudin Balt Usman for DNA profiling.
Citing DNA test results, the Crime Laboratory director, Chief Supt. Theresa Ann Cid said the “probability of Singkorya’s maternal relationship with Basit Usman is 99.9%.
The DNA test result also revealed that “Basit is paternally related to Hairudin Balt Usman,” Cid added.
A report from Director Benjamin Magalong, chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), disclosed that a skin tissue specimen was submitted to his office by a member of the MILF 106th Brigade on May 8 in Camp Crame.
The same MILF member also submitted a sheet of plain bond paper with alleged fingerprints and bloodstains of Basit Usman.
Magalong said the MILF member executed a sworn statement before CIDG officials attesting that he personally took the specimen from the body of Basit Usman after the wanted terrorist was killed in an encounter with his unit.
The witness said he personally knew Basit Usman because they formerly served together under the MILF 105th Base Command and later in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
As a high-profile fugitive from justice, Usman became the subject of the Department of National Defence and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DND-DILG) Joint Order on Reward No. 15-2012 issued on November 8, 2012 that offered a P6.3mn reward for information leading to his arrest.
The Rewards for Justice Programme of the US Department of Justice also offered up to $1mn reward for information leading to the arrest of Usman, who is described by the department as a Filipino bomb-making expert with links to the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organisations operating in the southern Philippines.


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