US has jurisdiction over US $5-million bounty – Palace

shutterstock

MANILA – Presidential Communications and Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Hermino Coloma Jr. said the United States (US) government has the jurisdiction as to how the USD5-million bounty will be disposed following the killing of international terrorist Zulkili bin Hir alias Marwan in an operation that also killed 44 Special Action Forces (SAF) commandos.

Coloma made this reaction after several individuals and groups suggested that the USD5-million bounty should be given to the families of the so-called fallen 44 and other SAF men who participated in the bloody operation to arrest Marwan and other high profile terrorist Abdul Basit Usman last January in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

”There are guidelines as to how the reward money will be disposed of since it came from the US government, they’ll be the one to set guidelines for it,” Coloma said in Radyo ng Bayan interview.

”As to how it will be conducted is not part of our duty because they (US) have the jurisdiction regarding that (reward money),” he added.

Marwan, a Malaysian bomb maker and top suspect in the Bali bombings, is one of the top international terrorists on the wanted list of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano was one of those who suggested that the reward money should be awarded to all the PNP-SAF operatives, especially for the families of fallen 44 heroes.

Cayetano said the US government should recognize that each and every one of the SAF policemen involved in the said operation sacrificed their lives to prevent one of the world’s most wanted terrorist from taking another human life, even at the expense of their own.

The US FBI through DNA tests has confirmed that it was Marwan who was killed in the deadly operation.

The 392-member SAF team has encountered the combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) during the operation, resulting in the killing of 44 and injuring 12 other SAF troopers.