Born: 11 July 1991;

Gender: Female;

Nationality: Philippines;

Identification Number: 73320881AG1191MAM20000; alt. 200801087; alt. 140000900032;

Address:
1. Basilan Province, Philippines;
2. Zamboanga City, Philippines;

Known also as: Myrna Adijul Mabanza; Myrna Ajilul Mabanza.

Activities:

Mabanza passed the licensing test for elementary school teachers in November 2012, according to the Manila-based Professional Regulation Commission.

Myrna was involved in the January 2016 transfer of $107,000 to Isnilon Hapilon (now deceased), the leader of the Marawi siege. The source of the funding is not familiar.

Hapilon, the acknowledged “emir of all Islamic State forces in the Philippines”, launched the Marawi siege with other pro-Islamic State militants in May 2017.

The siege ended in October after security forces killed Hapilon in five months of vicious gun battles that led to the deaths of 1,200 people, mostly militants.

Mabanza also served as, an intermediary between extremist groups in Southeast Asia that are recruiting, training, and deploying radical terrorists.

She was arrested and detained during an anti-drug raid on September 7, 2016, in the southern city of Zamboanga, where she worked as a public school teacher, according to a Philippine police news release two years ago.

Police seized three small packets of meth from her during the raid. It’s not clear if Mabanza remained in detention.

In February 2016, Myrna served as an intermediary between Hapilon and Islamic State elements in Syria.

In March 2016, Mabanza coordinated another transfer of funds with Hapilon. During the same month a senior Islamic State official in Syria planned to send financial support to Hapilon’s group through Mabanza. It’s not clear if that transaction went through.

In April 2016, Mabanza helped facilitate the travel of a Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) representative who traveled from Indonesia to the Philippines. The identity of the militant remains unknown.

She accompanied the JAD representative to Basilan, Philippines to meet Hapilon. The JAD representative traveled to the Philippines, purchased firearms for Islamic State-aligned militants in Indonesia and set up training courses for Indonesian militants in the southern Philippines where they received firearms training in pro-Islamic State guerrilla camps and learned basic bomb-making techniques.

JAD, was formed in 2015, and is composed of almost two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that had pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.