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Sunday, June 26, 2005
Suspected kidnapper of priest, teachers nabbed
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Government forces swooped down Saturday on a suspected terrorist hideout in the city and arrested an alleged Islamic militant accused of taking part in the kidnapping of a group of schoolteachers and a Roman Catholic priest more than 11 years ago.
Hajan Maldam, also known as Muktar, a suspected member of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, was arrested in the village of Santa Catalina after two of his former victims identified him as the one behind the kidnapping of Fr. Cirilo Nacorda and 16 school teachers in June 1944 in Basilan, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said.
"He was arrested after two of his victims recognized him in Zamboanga. He is now undergoing interrogation for the kidnapping of the 17 people in Basilan eleven years ago," Pascual said.
Abu Sayyaf guerrillas snatched Nacorda while he was traveling in Lantawan town, a known rebel stronghold on Basilan island, about 880 kilometers south of Manila.
The guerrillas flagged down two vehicles, separated the passengers by religion and massacred about 15 Christians. They fled with Nacorda and several women hostages, whom they freed a few days later after their families paid ransoms.
Nacorda, who the militants freed after two months following negotiations, said he was tortured. The rebels frequently hit him with rifle butts and fists, or pointed guns at his face.
One rebel used him as a target while hurling a knife into a wooden wall, with the blade always missing him by less than a foot.
Meanwhile, troops killed an Abu Sayyaf member on Thursday in a clash in Jolo Island, about 950 km south of Manila.
The fighting erupted in the village of Darayan in Patikul town after soldiers stormed an Abu Sayyaf hideout. There were no military casualties in the fighting, a spokesman said.
Troops were still searching for the 32-year-old Indonesian tugboat skipper Ahmad Resmiyadi, kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf group on March 30 near the Philippine-Sabah border and brought to Jolo Island.
Two other Indonesian crewmen Yamin Labaso, 26, and Erikson Hutagaol, 23, had been freed this month in Jolo. The kidnappers have earlier demanded three million ringgits ($789,600 dollars) in exchange for the safe release of the hostages.
The sailors, from the tugboat Bongagaya 91, owned by the Malaysian boat firm Syarikat Pengangkutan Bonggaya, were heading back to Sabah from East Kalimantan when bandits attacked them.
Authorities identified the kidnappers as Ibni Hassan, Ben Sanu alias Bin Ladin, Calvi Tandanan, Fernando Corrolo, Majit Kalinggalan, Hulti Jailani, Badong Moktadil and Abdul Ullong.
The Abu Sayyaf was also implicated in the kidnapping of two Malaysian and an Indonesian tugboat crewmembers in April last year near the southern Philippine island of Taganak off Tawi-Tawi. The seamen Toh Chiu Tiong, 53, Wong Siu Ung, 52, and Indonesian skipper JE Walter Sampel died in captivity, authorities said.
The group was also behind the kidnapping of 21 mostly Asian and European holidaymakers from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan in April 2000. Many of the hostages later were freed after Libyan and Malaysian negotiators paid an estimated $11 million ransom.
Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization after Manila implicated five of the group's known leaders to the killing of Californian Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in 2002. (Al Jacinto/Sunnex)
(June 26, 2005 issue)
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