Duterte: Top Abu Sayyaf leader Hapilon may be dead after airstrikes I ordered

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon may have been killed in military airstrikes he ordered over the past several weeks.

“I ordered his bombing of the house one month, two months ago. And we have not heard from him. So I suppose baka talagang patay na,” Duterte said during the investiture ceremony of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines held in Malacañang.

“He hasn’t surfaced. But that is their style eh. Mawala tapos bigla lang mag-surface. But I hope that we got him that time,” he added.

Last month, the Philippine Army's 103rd Brigade said that Hapilon was wounded in the right leg during an encounter with members of the 51st Infantry Battalion and 15th Division Reconnaisance Company in a forested village in Poona Babayao, Lanao del Sur.

The military had previously claimed that Hapilon was "seriously hurt" during an airstrike in Butig town, a known lair of the Maute group, in January.

Hapilon is believed to be establishing a “wilayat” or a provincial ISIS territory in Lanao del Sur.

In January, Duterte himself called Hapilon a "top honcho" of ISIS in the Philippines.

Amid his latest pronouncement about Hapilon, Duterte reiterated that he will “not allow terrorism and drugs” during his administration.

“I said I will not allow terrorism and drugs. I may talk to the rebels and those who had offered to talk peace, the communists, MI, MN. Those are the main Muslim, Moro… But the ISIS and itong drugs talagang tatapusin ko,” he said.  —JST, GMA News