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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
MILF tags Sayyaf in Italian priest's kidnapping
DAVAO CITY -- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Monday denied any involvement in the abduction of an Italian priest and instead blamed it on the Abu Sayyaf Group.
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the group behind the kidnapping of 57-year-old Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi in Zamboanga Sibugay Province on Sunday is headed by Abdusalam Akiddin, alias Commander Khidi.
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Khidi is a known follower of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI had condemned as "abominable" the kidnapping of priests, including Bossi, and other people around the world and demanded that kidnappers free their hostages in a general appeal during his traditional Sunday blessing.
The Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere (Pime) said Bossi was abducted around 9:35 a.m. Sunday in the village of Bulawan in the town of Payao after celebrating a mass with villagers.
Some of the suspects, who forced Bossi into one of two waiting motorized bancas, were wearing bonnets, said Zamboanga Sibugay Police Director Francisco Cristobal.
Earlier, authorities said a certain Khidi who they identified as an MILF leader was leading the gunmen who abducted Bossi.
"If the captor's leader is Khidi, definitely it's the work of the Abu Sayyaf. Khidi has long joined the Abu Sayyaf organization. Our counterpart in the peace negotiation has also asked about the identity of this person. I told them that Khidi is a member of Abu Sayyaf and has been linked in previous kidnappings in Zamboanga Peninsula," Iqbal said in a report posted in a network website.
Contrary to Iqbal's claims, however, MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said Khidi is a loyal commander of jailed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Nur Misuari.
"He (Khidi) is not MILF. He is operating in Zamboanga area. And the military knows that he is with the MNLF. They should have not implicated us in the abduction of the Italian priest," Kabalu said.
Kabalu said the military's basis for linking Khidi to the MILF was probably his active friendship with rebel troops.
"But that's not acceptable. They should conduct a through investigation first and foremost. We are more than willing to help in the rescue of the victim," he added.
National Capital Region Command commander Ben Mohammad Dolorfino said the MILF was helping in the search for Bossi and has deployed its forces to where the kidnappers are keeping the victim.
Dolorfino co-chairs the Government-MILF Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) with MILF lawyer Abdul Dataya. The AHJAG coordinates joint operation between government and MILF forces in accordance with a standing ceasefire agreement between the two sides.
In a press briefing, Armed Forces public information officer Bartolome Bacarro said the military's rescue operations are concentrated at Tungawan town where the kidnappers were last seen heading to aboard motorized boats.
The continuing rescue efforts by the Army's 102nd Brigade have so far yielded negative results, however, he added. Bacarro said the military operations would not stop until Bossi is secured from his captors.
Bacarro said the military has not received word that the kidnappers had demanded ransom.
No group has even claimed responsibility for Bossi's abduction, added Cristobal.
Colonel Godofredo Paderanga, the civil-military operations officer of the Army's 1st Infantry Division (ID), earlier said Bossi's abductors belong to a group of lawless elements under Commander Khidi.
He said the suspects could have fled to the coastal towns of Olutanga, Naga, Ipil, and Tungawan, all in Zamboanga Sibugay, as well as to the southern island provinces of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-tawi with their hostage.
Cristobal said the Payao police station have launched sea-borne patrol operations after the kidnapping in coordination with nearby police stations.
He said the police have also coordinated with the military's Western Mindanao Command and the 1st ID in the rescue operations.
He said the Army's 18th Infantry Battalion (IB) had been already mobilized for the operation.
Iqbal said they received information that Bossi was brought to an island between Zamboanga and Basilan.
Bossi's abduction came only days after a German businessman and his three companions were abducted for several hours in North Cotabato.
The May 31 victimized 44-year-old Thomas Wallraf of Cologne, Germany, his Filipino-American wife May Sharon Jackson, and their friends Consuela San Juan and Diego Delfin. The four were on their way Parang, Shariff Kabunsuan to talk to a man claiming to be selling nickel babbits were abducted but were freed through the intervention of the MILF.
Bossi, who started his missionary in Payao since 1998, is the third Italian priest kidnapped in Zamboanga Peninsula in the past ten years.
Moro rebels kidnapped Fr. Luciano Benedetti, 52, in Zamboanga del Norte Province in 1998 and held him captive for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed reportedly upon payment of a big ransom.
In 2001, renegade MILF rebels snatched Fr. Giuseppi Pierantoni as the 44-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur. He escaped from his abductors after six months in captivity.
Pierantoni later told authorities he had been passed from one kidnap gang to another as military and police mounted a huge manhunt. (AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (June 12, 2007 issue)
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