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Saturday, July 22, 2006
Notorious bandit leader captured in Iligan
By Al Jacinto
MANILA -- Security forces captured Friday a notorious bandit leader implicated in a series of kidnappings and killings in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said policemen, backed by marine soldiers, swooped down on a hideout in Iligan City and arrested Elias Makil.
"He was finally captured after a long surveillance operation. Troops are tracking down the rest of his gang behind a failed kidnapping Thursday of three traders in Iligan City," said Brigadier General Mohamad Dolorfino, deputy commander of the military's Southern Command.
Dolorfino said the bandit leader is being interrogated for his alleged links on the spate of attacks on soldiers and highway robberies in Lanao del Norte province.
His group almost kidnapped the traders, but they managed to escape and sought help from the military in Iligan City. Makil was also tagged as behind the kidnapping of 56-year-old Muslim provincial poll official Disalungan Pulala last month, Dolorfino said.
Pulala was kidnapped while on his way to mosque in Iligan City and freed days later in the remote village of Ulangu in the town of Balo'i in Lanao del Norte, one of five provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, after private negotiators paid some 100,000 pesos in ransom.
Last month, gunmen also seized Pala-o Diamla, a court sheriff in Marawi City in Lanao de Sur province on orders from a politician who lost in the May 2004 elections.
Diamla was returning home May 30 when kidnapped by a band of armed men. He was freed a week later after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, backed by government soldiers, threatened to assault the kidnappers' hideout in the province.
The MILF, the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group, forged an agreement in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the MILF is actively operating.
Kidnapping for ransom in the southern region has become a lucrative business with many groups operating independently. The proliferation of illegal weapons also aggravated the problem of the peace and order in the Muslim autonomous region. (Sunnex)
(July 22, 2006 issue)
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