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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Abu Sayyaf holding hostage, report says
By Bong S. Sarmiento
KORONADAL CITY -- Suspected Abu Sayyaf members were allegedly holding a Chinese-looking hostage in Sultan Kudarat province, a village official in the area said Monday.
Allan Martin Membrellos, village chief of Barangay Takupis in Sen. Ninoy Aquino town, said in a telephone interview that his constituents saw a Chinese-looking men being held by the suspected Abu Sayyaf members.
The suspected Abu Sayyaf members were reportedly seen together with their alleged kidnap victims in sitio Membalo, Barangay Baluan, Palimbang town, about 1.5 kilometers from his village.
A river separates Barangays Takupis and Baluan from each other, he added.
Membrellos said that soldiers have been deployed in sitio Pusok, Barangay Baluan to go after the armed men.
Reports said that residents heard bursts of gunfire, indicating a gunfight Sunday.
The town's policemen also went to Takupis Sunday to check on the reported presence of the heavily armed men near the boundary of Palimbang town, said Membrellos who was reached by telephone at the Sen. Ninoy Aquino municipal hall.
Sen. Ninoy Aquino Mayor Rafael Flauta and 604th Infantry Brigade commander Col. Jerry Jalandoni could not be reached to confirm the said reports.
Jalandoni earlier claimed that Abu Sayyaf members allegedly headed by Isnilon Hapilon were sighted in the nearby town of Bagumbayan.
But the mayor of Bagumbayan, Felipe Allaga, doubted the pronouncements of Jalandoni that Abu Sayyaf members were his town between September 10 and
13.
"It's not clear if the armed men are really members of the Abu Sayyaf. It's only the [military's] intelligence report saying they are Abu Sayyaf members," the mayor was earlier quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Membrellos said they also learned that the men had reportedly held hostage the wife of the village secretary of Baluan last September 8.
He identified the abducted village secretary as a certain, Mrs. dela Peña.
Dela Pena however reportedly manages to escape from her alleged captors around midnight on the same day "by running in the dark."
The alleged presence of Hapilon's group in Sultan Kudarat province was the second reported sighting of Abu Sayyaf Group members in the province.
In July last year, Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafy Janlalani and his men were also reported to have landed in the coastal town of Palimbang.
The military however failed to establish contact with the group of Janjalani despite the massive operations launched by at least a battalion of government soldiers.
The US government earlier offered $5 million (P250-million) each for the capture of Janjalani, Hapilon and other top leaders of the Abu Sayyaf.
(September 21, 2004 issue)
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