SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 22, 2008) – Followers of a detained Sulu town mayor implicated in the kidnapping of a Philippine television presenter and 3 others are set to hold a huge rally Monday to show their support to the embattled politician.
“We will hold 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 Mindanao Examiner.
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 ransoms. Police said P5 million was paid by Drilon’s family to the militant group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya 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 MNLF's 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 Senator 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 which ousted Misuari in a coup in 2002.
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, 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 Secy. Ronaldo Puno said Isnaji and his son have been detained in Manila. The two were picked up in Zamboanga City after they accompanied Drilon's group on June 18.
Puno said the duo is 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 to secretly interview 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.
The United States listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization and has offered rewards of up to $5 million for the capture of its known leaders. It also deployed a few hundred Marines and Special Forces soldiers in Sulu to help the Filipino military defeat the Abu Sayyaf. (Mindanao Examiner)
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