Isnilon Totoni Hapilon
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| Isnilon Totoni Hapilon | |
 Abu Sayyaf Group member
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| Born | March 18, 1966 Basilan, the Philippines |
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Isnilon Totoni Hapilon (born March 18, 1966 in Bulanza barangay, Lantawan municipality, Basilan province, Republic of the Philippines) is Deputy Amir, or second in command, of the Filipino terrorist organization called the Abu Sayyaf Group.
Hapilon is also known as The Deputy, and by other aliases "Abu Musab, Sol, Abu Tuan, Esnilon, and Salahuddin." He is a citizen of the Philippines, a thin man at 5'6" and only 120 pounds. He speaks Tausug, Tagalog and Yakan, as well as English. His whereabouts are unknown, since Hapilon may travel to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
In 2002 Hapilon and four other ASG members -- Khadaffy Janjalani, Hamsiraji Marusi Sali, Aldam Tilao, and Jainal Antel Sali, Jr. -- were indicted in the United States for kidnapping and murder.[1] Hapilon is the only one of the five who is still alive.[2] On February 24, 2006, Hapilon, Janjalani, and Jainal Sali, Jr. were three of the six fugitives added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.[3] The Rewards For Justice Program of the United States Department of State is offering up to US$5 million (about 250,000,000 Philippine pesos) for information on Hapilon's location.[2]
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[edit] Background on Basilan birthplace
Isnilon Totoni Hapilon was born in 1966 in Bulanza barangay of Lantawan municipality, currently one of the smaller and poorer, or 4th class, Philippine municipalities, and which is located on the west end of the island of Basilan, across the Basilan Strait from Zamboanga City. Lantawan, along with most of the island province of Basilan, is now (since 1996) governed as part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the east.
Being on the social or political division line, Basilan island has seen some of the fiercest fighting between government troops and the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf through the early 2000s.
When Isnilon Totoni Hapilon was still a pre-teen, in the early 1970s, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was the main Muslim rebel group fighting in the Basilan region of the southern Philippines.
In the late 1980s Hapilon graduated from the University of the Philippines School of Engineering. The U.P. is a system of seven campuses making up the premier state university of the Philippines, with very competitive admissions. Less than 10% of 70,000 high school applicants are admitted by test results each year. It is also noted for its highly politicized student leaders who vigorously promote various causes.
[edit] Abu Sayyaf Group under Abdurajik Janjalani
After the late 1980s, Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani, returned home to Basilan from the Soviet war in Afghanistan to establish his own offshoot group in the southern Philippines, out of members of the extant MNLF.
By then, as a political solution in the southern Philippines, ARMM had been created, in 1989, when Hapilon was 23 years old.
On Basilan, Abdurajik Janjalani gathered radical members of the old MNLF in 1990, to found Abu Sayyaf Group. It was named after his own alias, which was Abu Sayyaf. MNLF had moderated into an established political party, which eventually became the ruling party of the ARMM, by its full institutionalization in 1996 on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Abu Sayyaf Group had started out on their own by 1991 under the leadership of the elder Janjalani brother, Abdurajik. By 1995 Abu Sayyaf had been active in large scale bombings and attacks in the Philippines, and also had become associated with Ramzi Yousef (of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1994 Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the foiled 1995 Operation Bojinka), and also with Jemaah Islamiyah (al-Qaeda's southeast Asia associated branch led by Hambali [4]).
On December 18, 1998 the founder Abdurajik Janjalani was killed in a firefight with the Philippine National Police on Basilan island. He is thought to have been about age 39 at the time of his death.
[edit] Abu Sayyaf Group under Khadaffy Janjalani
The younger Janjalani brother, 23 year-old Khadaffy Janjalani, then eventually took power and Abu Sayyaf began a new tactic, as they proceeded to take hostages.
The group's motive for kidnapping became more financial and less religious during the period of Khadaffy's leadership, according to locals in the areas associated with Abu Sayyaf. The hostage money is probably the method of financing of the group.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Charges Abu Sayyaf Members in Missionary's Death, PBS, 23 July 2002
- ^ a b Reward offer on five ASG members, Rewards for Justice Program, US Department of State
- ^ FBI Updates Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information – War on Terrorism Lists, FBI national Press Release, February 24, 2006
- ^ nbr.org (pdf)
- ^ Information on new tactics
