Abu Sayyaf bandits in Bohol all neutralized —AFP

Bohol is now free of Abu Sayyaf Group bandits, the Armed Forces of the Philippines declared on Monday.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla named the slain suspects by their aliases as Abu Asis and Abu Ubayda.

"With the death of Asis and Ubayda, all the ASG members that landed in Bohol province aboard three bancas in early April 2017 were all neutralized. Bohol is now cleared of ASG elements," Padilla said.

Asis died in an earlier encounter and Ubayda in a second.

Padilla said Ubayda was killed in barangay Lawis, about a hundred meters away from the first encounter site.

"He resisted arrest and chose to fight it out with the government troops resulting to his death," Padilla said of Ubayda, who yielded a cal. 45 pistol with inserted magazine containing four ammunition.

Padilla earlier in the day said a concerned citizen tipped combined elements of the military and Philippine National Police on the whereabouts of the bandits in Barangay Kahayag.

“One of them was killed, and the other, though reportedly wounded, was able to elude and now the subject of pursuit operations,” Padilla said in apparent reference to Asis.

Padilla noted that none from the government forces were injured in the operation.

A group of Abu Sayyaf members, led by Muammar Askali, slipped into Bohol last month.

Askali and several other members of his group had been killed by the military and the police.

The bandits allegedly went to Bohol, a tourist destination, to carry out kidnappings. —NB, GMA News