MANILA - The military on Thursday awarded cash rewards to informants who provided information that led to the killing and arrest of communist rebels and members of the Abu Sayyaf Group.

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General Carlito Galvez Jr., Armed Forces Chief of Staff, handed over the reward, which amounted to a total of P27.6 million to 10 individuals whose identities were concealed for their security.

Through information shared by tipsters, 8 Abu Sayyaf Group members and cohorts, and 2 leaders of the New People's Army were either killed or arrested in law enforcement operations.

Because of the informants, authorities found Ahmad Akmad Batabol alias ‘Basit Usman,’ who carried a P6.3-million bounty. Usman, tagged in the US most wanted terror list and an associate of Malaysian terror leader Marwan, was killed in 2015.

Tipsters who led to the killing of Muhiden Abdusalam Uyong alias ‘Waning Abdusalam,’ who was behind the June 9, 2007 kidnapping of Italian priest Father Carlo Bossi in the town of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay, were also rewarded. The government had offered a P3.7 million bounty for Muhiden's arrest.

AFP said the cash reward system that started in 2001 aimed to encourage citizens to join government’s counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency efforts.

- With a report from Henry Atuelan, ABS-CBN News