Who’s afraid of terrorists? Not “Lolo Peryong”, a 70-year-old grandfather from Calape town in Bohol.
“Lolo,” who police did not identify by his real name, came face-to-face with Abu Sayyaf bandit “Abu Ubayda” on May 15, while he was cleaning his yard.
The terrorist group, who normally carries out their attacks and kidnappings in southern Mindanao, arrived in Bohol last April 11, where they were met by police and military forces in an armed firefight that killed most of their members.
While most people would’ve ran and hid from Ubayda, one of the last surviving Abu Sayyaf members in Bohol, Lolo Peryong took his bolo — the Filipino version of a machete — and charged at Ubayda.
Calape Police Senior Inspector Cresente Gurea told local newspaper The Bohol Chronicle that he tried to slash Ubayda but missed.
The confrontation led to a struggle for the bolo between Peryong and Ubayda. Peryong ended up getting slashed and butted in the head with Ubayda’s rifle.
Police credit Peryong with helping delay Ubayda, who was trying to escape authorities after he and Abu Asis were caught in a military checkpoint.
They split ways after the checkpoint, Asis was killed first and Ubayda was on the run when he found himself in Lolo Peryong’s yard.
A month after the first armed confrontation in nearby Inabangan town between the Armed Forces and police against the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, Gen. Arnulfo Matanguihan of the 302nd Infantry Brigade Commander declared that Bohol is free of the terrorist group.
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