|
By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected rebels
have captured two Marine intelligence agents on Basilan island,
where security forces are fighting Abu Sayyaf militants blamed for
terrorism and kidnappings in southern Mindanao.
The soldiers were identified as
Corporals Jesse Duatin and Bernard Alcantara. They were believed to
have been abducted early this week.
Intelligence sources on Thursday
said the rebels wanted to swap the soldiers for a captured Abu
Sayyaf militant, Sali Alih, who was implicated in the beheading of
14 Marines in fierce clashes last year in Basilan province’s Al-Barka
town.
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro
said he instructed Armed Forces chief Alexander Yano to look into
the alleged kidnapping after receiving sketchy reports on it.
The two Marine intelligence
agents were said to have been “lured” into setting a meeting
with an emissary of commander Hadji Mas’ud alias Commander Long of
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF. Mas’ud earlier
supposedly sent surrender feelers to Col. Leonard Vincent Teodoro,
commander of the Seventh Marine Battalion. The MILF has been
battling for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao for more than
30 years.
Navy spokesman Edgardo Arevalo
said Col. Teodoro sent the two soldiers to the area after he
received a report on Mas’ud’s plan to turn himself in. The
colonel would later learn that the soldiers were held and brought to
a rebel camp.
Arevalo said the Defense
secretary is working on the immediate release of the two hostages.
He added that rescue, however, has been ruled out to give way to
talks between Col. Teodoro and Mas’ud.
The Navy spokesman said the
colonel was able to talk to the two Marines on Wednesday through a
cell phone. The conversation, Arevalo added, proved that
communication lines between the two parties are still open.
Arevalo assured that the military
would not entertain the “prisoner swap” proposed by the MILF
because such exchange is not government policy.
“We are consistent with our
adherence to the stand of the government not to succumb to demands
of ransom payment or agreeing to concessions,” he said.
It was learned that Mas’ud
wanted the government to release Salih, his nephew, who was arrested
recently by the military.
The military is preparing a
protest against the MILF over the kidnapping of the two Marines. The
protest will be submitted to the Coordinating Committee on the
Cessation of Hostilities as the incident, the Armed Forces said, is
considered as a “violation” of a ceasefire between the MILF and
the government.
The MILF confirmed the abduction
of the two soldiers, but it was unknown whether the abductors are
connected with the rebel group, which is negotiating peace with
Manila.
It said the soldiers are being
held captive by followers of Mas’ud. “We have to verify this
report, whether the soldiers are really being held by the MILF
forces in Basilan, but for sure the MILF has no links whatsoever to
the Abu Sayyaf group,” Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, told The
Manila Times.
The Philippine military did not
give any statements about the captive soldiers, but sources said
there are negotiations to free the hostages.
Intelligence sources said the
rebels threatened to execute the two Marines if Alih is not freed
from military custody. Alih belongs to the group of Abu Sayyaf
leader Furuji Indama, blamed for the spate of attacks on military
patrols on Basilan.
--With Jefferson Antiporda
|
