The Tagbilaran City Police Station (TCPS) is set to conduct a dialogue with the capital’s Muslim community after unverified reports on the presence of more Abu Sayyaf members surfaced.

According to TCPS operations chief SPO1 Celso Orapa, they intend to make sure that the bandit group will have no support from residents of Tagbilaran City.

The plan was initiated after police received claims that Abu Sayyaf bandits took shelter among members of the city’s Muslim community.

However, Orapa noted that the reports were untrue.

The claims nonetheless prompted several Tagbilaran City Council members to urge the TCPS to tighten the monitoring of entries of suspicious individuals into the province.

Earlier, leaders of the local Muslim community have pledged to extend support to authorities in efforts to maintain peace and order in Tagbilaran City and the rest of the province.

In mid-April, suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber Renierlo Dongon and wife Police Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza and two others managed to slip into the province and even book accommodations in Panglao unnoticed.

The group was allegedly in the province to rescue the remaining Abu Sayyaf members who survived the clashes between government troops and the bandit group in Inabanga and Clarin last month.

Dongon and Nobleza were collared at a security checkpoint in Clarin on April 22 and were transported to Camp Crame in Quezon City a few days after their arrest as they were tagged as “high-risk” detainees. (A. Doydora)