Pelonio Oger / CDN PHOTO.JUNJIE MENDOZA
Sixty-nine-year-old Oger Roma Pelonio, the suspected Abu Sayyaf member arrested on Thursday morning (August 16) in Barangay Ocaña, Carcar City Cebu, denied the accusations against him.
Pelonio said he is not a terrorist or a Muslim, as what operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7) have portrayed.
The CIDG-7 implemented a search warrant issued by Judge Gilbert Moises of the Regional Trial Court Branch 18 in Cebu City against the suspect.
Recovered from him were four guns, assorted ammunitions, a hand grenade, and a Muslim bible.
Pelonio, however, said he was a former military man who decided to settle in Cebu where his wife came from.
Charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives will be filed against Pelonio.
Col. Medel Aguilar of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command neither confirmed nor denied that the suspect is on their list of terrorist.
“Whether or not he is an Abu Sayyaf, the fact is guns and a bomb were recovered from him,” he said.
The suspect is now under the custody of CIDG-7.