Dungoan: In a village a few hours’ drive from the Philippine city of Davao, leader Patutin Ali Sagadan Jr is trying to make sense of how his community of rice, banana and coconut farmers became entangled in a terror investigation stretching all the way to Sydney.
It is here in Dungoan, one of 37 sub-villages attached to the town of M’lang, in Cotabato province, that Filipino investigators believe a phone may have been used just weeks ago by the father or son accused of murdering 15 people in a Bondi Beach park.
“I was shocked at that report,” Sagadan, the village chief, says from his office. “If there were any foreigners here, it would usually get to me immediately.”
Until Thursday last week, when a police officer knocked on his door, Sagadan wasn’t even aware of what had unfolded in Sydney on December 14.
By Friday, Filipino police, army and intelligence personnel had swarmed his village to hunt for clues. As far as Sagadan knows, they found little of value.
“They went to the area where they thought the [phone] signal was coming from,” he says. “But it’s an open area. No one lives there.”
Sagadan took this masthead to the same field where investigators led him a week earlier. It is about the size of a soccer pitch, populated by a half a dozen cows and bordered by a channel, palm trees and a road.
“They told me the [digital] information was not always accurate,” he says. “It could have been that they [one or both of the accused] were passing the area and made a call or sent a message and it was picked up here.
“None of [the village leaders] have monitored the presence of those two people.”
Those two people are Bondi Beach shooter Sajid Akram, who was killed by police, and his accused son, Naveed.
Australian authorities and newly released court documents suggest the attack at Bondi was inspired by Islamic State ideology. So it is deeply unsettling for Filipinos and their government that the men spent almost all of November on the southern island of Mindanao, where Islamic militant groups have historically been active.
In 2016, Daulah Islamiyah was behind a bombing in Davao City that killed 15 people. The group was also responsible for torching a passenger bus in M’lang that killed at least three people in 2021.
That same year, Philippine authorities launched clearing operations against the militants, killing DI leader Salahuddin Hassan.
Until then, militant strongholds had been only about 10 kilometres from Dungoan, Sagadan says. Manila insists militant groups in Mindanao have been severely degraded, and Sagadan agrees. But he says traces may linger.
“Since 2022, there have been reports of sightings in [neighbouring province] Maguindanao,” he says. “But it’s very hard to pinpoint their location because they are always on the run.”
What the Akrams got up to in Mindanao remains a mystery. Staff at the Davao City hotel where they stayed between November 1 and November 28 said the pair left the $24 room for only one or two hours a day.
But this masthead revealed on Monday that investigators believe they may have detected one of the Akrams’ phones in the township of M’lang, which is three hours by car from Davao City or five hours by bus.
It is not known whether one or both of the Akrams did, in fact, travel to or near M’lang. Police in the town said “validation” efforts were ongoing.
Bondi Beach incident helplines:
- Bondi Beach Victim Services on 1800 411 822
- Bondi Beach Public Information & Enquiry Centre on 1800 227 228
- NSW Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 or Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or chat online at kidshelpline.com.au
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
Zach Hope is South-East Asia correspondent. He is a former reporter at the Brisbane Times.Connect via email.
