|
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Followers of a detained Sulu town mayor implicated
in the kidnapping of a Philippine television presenter and three
others are set to hold a huge rally on Monday to show their support
to the embattled politician.
“We are holding a big rally in Sulu to show
our full support to Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son and also to
condemn their continued detention,” Gaifur Kanain, an aide of the
mayor, told The Manila Times.
Police implicated Isnaji in the June 8 Abu
Sayyaf kidnapping of ABS-CBN reporter Ces Drilon and her cameramen
Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, and their guide Octavio
Dinampo, a professor of the Mindanao State University.
Isnaji, one of seven candidates running for
governor in the Muslim autonomous region in August, was selected by
the Abu Sayyaf to negotiate for the release of the hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf freed the four hostages
separately after reportedly collecting as much as P20 million for
ransom. Police said Drilon’s family paid P5 million to the
militant group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah and that Isnaji
pocketed allegedly P3 million.
Isnaji, the current chairman of the Sulu League
of Municipalities, denied the accusations against him and his son.
He is also a senior member of the Moro National Liberation Front’s
(MNLF) Central Committee which, signed a peace agreement with Manila
in 1996.
Before he became mayor, Isnaji was the Speaker
of the Regional Legislative Assembly in the Muslim autonomous region
and became also the acting regional governor in 2001.
He admitted paying several hundreds of
thousands of pesos for the freedom of Drilon’s group on top of a
package of livelihood aids and infrastructure projects allegedly
promised by Sen. Loren Legarda, who helped in the negotiations.
The MNLF is also supporting Isnaji. “We are
behind him and the government should free him immediately,” the
group’s new chairman Muslimin Sema said.
Former MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari also has told
the Department of Justice that Isnaji’s alias is “Laring-Laring,”
a codename frequently heard by the hostages from the kidnappers
during their captivity.
But Sema said Isnaji’s alias is Baguinda and
not Laring-Laring. “Misuari is just getting back at Mayor Isnaji
because he had lost support from among many leaders of the MNLF,”
Sema said.
Isnaji was among senior MNLF leaders that
composed the so-called Council of 15 that ousted Misuari in a coup
in 2002.
Gov. Sakur Tan of Sulu, the head of the local
crisis management committee, had repeatedly discouraged negotiators
from paying ransom to the Abu Sayyaf because he said the money would
likely be used to buy weapons and finance terrorism and more
kidnappings in the island, one of six provinces under the Muslim
autonomous region.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Isnaji and
his son have been detained in Manila and are being held on
kidnapping charges. He tagged the group of Radulan Sahiron as behind
the kidnapping of the four people who were intercepted in Maimbung
town while on their way for an interview with the Abu Sayyaf leader.
Police also implicated Abu Sayyaf leaders
Albader Parad, Gafur Jumdail, Umbra Jumdail, Tuan Walis and Sulayman
Patta as among about 30 gunmen involved in the kidnappings.
--AL JACINTO
|
