Manila: The Philippines and Australian police arrested Robert Edward Edward ‘Musa’ Cerantino, a suspected link of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in his apartment in Cebu on Friday morning, based on a tip-off from international intelligence communities that were alarmed by his active online recruitment of militants to Syria, sources told Gulf News.

A joint police and military operation, and the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams of the Philippine and Australian police arrested Cerantino, 29, at his apartment in Pajac village, Lapu Lapu, Police Director Prudencio Tom Banas of Cebu’s regional police office told Gulf News in a phone interview.

Confirmation of the arrest was made at past five in the afternoon, said Banas, adding the arrest has ended a conduit linking jihadist from the Philippines to ISIS.

Australian authorities brought Cerantino to Manila, cancelled his passport, and scheduled his deportation to Australia, said Banas, who did not reveal Cerantino’s whereabouts in Manila.

Security forces also arrested Cerantino’s companion, Joean Montayre, 32, from Candoni, Negros Occidental, for failure to pay bills at the hotel where she and Cerantonio had stayed.

Authorities learned about Cerantino’s whereabouts last Saturday. Since then, he and his companions were placed under surveillance for almost a week before arrest warrants were issued against him and his companion.

Cerantonio who is from Melbourne is a Muslim preacher and arrived in Manila in February to recruit members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), which is headed by Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, Banas said.

To do this, he went to southern Philippines’ Basilan and Sulu, Banas added.

Facebook also removed his account in April, following revelations that he urged 12,000 subscribers to “assassinate US politicians,” said Banas, adding he received this data from international intelligence communities that have been following up Cerantino’s activities in the Philippines

Cerantino’s presence in the Philippines is a proof of the link between Islamist militant with ISIS, said Banas.

But he also met up with members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, whose members took part in the Afghanistan conflict in the eighties, and was established in the southern Philippines in the 80s with the help of the brother-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, the late head of Al Qaida, Banas said.

The Abu Sayyaf Group, blamed for kidnap-for-ransom activities, beheadings and other terror activities in the south and in Metro Manila, has links with Jemaah Islamiya, the Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida network.

Another source told Gulf News earlier that Philippines is the least represented among other foreign members of ISIS, who included other jihadist from Malaysia and Indonesia, who are also members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Baghdadi’s aim is to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, north Africa, and also in Muslim dominated countries in Southeast Asia’s Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and southern Philippines.