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WITH Father Giancarlo Bossi freed by his captors, the
hunt for the group that killed 14 Marines in Basilan could proceed
in earnest, the military said Friday.
The Armed Forces spokesman, Lt.
Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said the “punitive action” against the
group that attacked the Marines could be carried out fully.
“We can now focus our available
resources on running after the perpetrators of our comrade
Marines,” Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front
has admitted its fighters had taken part in the battle in Tipo-Tipo
town, but denied that they beheaded 10 of the killed soldiers.
The military has given the MILF
until Sunday midnight to surrender its fighters who ambushed the
Marines.
The Marines were checking reports
that Bossi and his kidnappers were seen in Tipo-Tipo.
Troops were also sent to Sulu
after Bossi was also reported to have been sighted there.
The Italian missionary was
released by his kidnappers in Karumatan, Lanao del Norte, the
province next to Zamboanga Sibugay where he was abducted on June 10.
Senators Rodolfo Biazon and
Francis Pangilinan said Friday that the release of Bossi should not
stop the government from punishing those who killed and mutilated
the bodies of Marines in Basilan.
Biazon, a former Marine
commandant, noted that immediately after the Basilan incident,
President Arroyo and Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the Armed Forces chief
of staff, issued an order to the military to hunt down those
responsible for the “barbaric killing, beheading and mutilation”
of the Marines.
Pangilinan said there should be
no softening of the government’s desire to punish the perpetrators
of the “barbaric crime.”
“I am thankful for the safe
release of Fr. Bossi, but the hunt for the killers of the Marines
should continue,” Pangilinan said.
Biazon said he would file a
resolution calling for an investigation of the Bossi kidnapping and
the killing of the Marines. Pangilinan said he would support the
Senate investigation.
“But we must not lose sight of
the fact that the greater need is to find a comprehensive solution
to the problem,” Pangilinan added.
--Anthony Vargas and Efren L. Danao
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