One of the top Abu Sayyaf group leaders involved in kidnapping foreigners has been arrested in Metro Manila, the police announced Saturday.
Mark Bolkerin Gumbahale was caught Thursday by police intelligence agents in Taguig, Metro Manila after a civilian asset reported to police his hideout in the area, the Philippine News Agency quoted national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane as saying.
Gumbahale, involved in kidnapping 21 mostly western tourists in Malaysia's resort island of Sipadan in April 2000, has a bounty of5 million pesos (about 94,000 US dollars) on his head put up by the government.
Police also said he participated in a series of bombings in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000 that killed more than 20 people.
Gumbahale was said to be one of the close henchmen of slain Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya, who was killed during a sea encounter with hunting government soldiers in the south in June this year.
Thousands of government troops have been deployed in the south hunting down Abu Sayyaf bandits, allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11 last year.