ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 20, 2010) – A former soldier kidnapped in Zamboanga City was released by his captors after two weeks in captivity, police and military said on Saturday.
Authorities said Benjamin Almonte was abducted by gunmen February 6 while fishing off the coast of Zamboanga City.
“He was freed near the town of Ipil in the neighboring province of Zamboanga Sibugay,” said Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, head of the anti-terror Task Force Trillium, and commander of the naval forces in Western Mindanao.
Officials did not give details of the release of Almonte or whether ransom was paid to his captors.
No group claimed responsibility for Almonte’s kidnapping or the motive behind this and police said it still investigating the case. But other sources said members of the so-called Moro Islamic Liberation Front special operation group under Waning Abdusalam was behind the kidnapping.
Abdusalam was also linked to the kidnapping last year of Irish Catholic priest Michael Sinnott last year in Zamboanga del Sur province.
Sinnott, 80, was taken by six gunmen on October 11 from his missionary house in Pagadian City and brought to Lanao province and freed in Zamboanga City after a month in captivity. (Mindanao Examiner)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Kidnapped ex-soldier freed in Zamboanga province
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
2 Navy Seals Killed In Basilan Clash
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / December 30, 2009) – Two members of an elite Philippine Navy unit were killed in a clash with gunmen in the southern province of Basilan, where security forces are battling Abu Sayyaf militants, officials said Wednesday.
Officials said the fighting occurred in the coastal village of Kandiis in the town of Muhammad Ajul late Tuesday after soldiers who were in several rubber boats came under fire from about 20 gunmen under Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel Tanad Nasalun.
“The attack on the soldiers sparked a gun battle that killed Lieutenant Christopher Pantaleon and Petty Officer 3 Almario Manalili. Another sailor Reynan Sumalinog was wounded in the fighting,” said Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, the regional navy chief.
He said the soldiers, who are members of the Special Warfare Group, was on a security patrol after receiving intelligence reports that Abu Sayyaf forces under Nurhasan Jamiri and Puruji Indama were in the area.
The Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front are both actively operating in Basilan and had been previously linked by the police and military to many kidnappings-for-ransom in the province.
Pama has ordered troops to hunt down the attackers. “There is an ongoing operation,” he said. “Our operation in the area is to prevent terrorism and neutralize the terrorists; and to recover innocent people being held by the Abu Sayyaf.”
Marine Brigadier General Eugene Clemen, commander of military forces in Basilan, said the attackers apparently escaped and are being hunted by soldiers. “We are tracking them down,” Clemen, who was leading the operation in Mohammad Ajul town, said.
But the MILF said Tanad Nasalun, whose real name is Tanad Hajji Yunos, is a legitimate commander of the rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.
“We will let the cease-fire committees of the MILF and the Philippine government investigate the clashes to prevent the escalation of hostilities in Basilan,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said.
He said there were reports that clashes between Yunos’ group and government forces erupted Wednesday in Sinulatan village in Tuburan town near Muhammad Ajul. But the military said soldiers clashed with Abu Sayyaf militants under Montong Pula. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Abu Sayyaf is holding two Chinese citizens Zi Shun Lu, alias Oscar Lu, 51; and Bo Shung Tan, who goes by the name Michael Tan, 27, both from Guangzhou province. A third hostage, Filipino plywood factory worker, Mark Singson, was beheaded recently in Basilan after his family and employer, Hitech Wood Craft Corporation in Maluso town, failed to pay P1.5 million ransom. Some 20 gunmen disguised as soldiers raided the factory on November 10 and seized the trio.
The Abu Sayyaf is also holding Donald John Capili, 19, who was kidnapped on August 27 in Zamboanga del Norte’s Liloy town and brought to Basilan by boat. Capili is a grandson of former Liloy town mayor Belchu Uy. (Mindanao Examiner)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Civilian gets reward for helping track down Basilan escapees
The man, his face covered with a ski mask and wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, received the money, all in several bundles of P500 bills, at a press conference in Isabela City in Basilan province.
Philippine Navy regional chief Alexander Pama and Marine Lieutenant General Benjamin Dolorfino handed the reward.
“This money is given to the civilian who helped us tracked down two of those who escaped from prison. We are continuing our hunt to recapture the rest.
We need the cooperation of the civilians to capture all the fugitives,” Dolorfino said.
The informant did not give any statement and was quickly whisked away by policemen and soldiers to a waiting van.
Troops tracked down the two prisoners on Monday in a village called Maligue in Isabela City, but one of them – an Abu Sayyaf militant – was killed in a subsequent firefight with soldiers. The other was a criminal facing a string of charges in Basilan.
Basilan jail warden Julmaril Sali said 17 of those who escaped from prison were Abu Sayyaf militants and 5 are members of the country’s largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front – two of them commanders – while the rest were criminals.
The prisoners escaped on December 13 after more than 100 gunmen stormed the provincial jail in the village of Sumagdang in Isabela City. A jail guard and one of the attackers were killed in the raid.
Authorities said the attackers were mostly Abu Sayyaf and Moro rebels.
The MILF denied it was involved in the raid, but admitted that one of those who escaped from the jail is a rebel commander accused by the military of beheading 10 soldiers in a firefight in Basilan.
“One of those who escaped is our commander Dan Asnawi who is being accused by the military as involved in the beheading of the soldiers in Basilan.
Asnawi was never involved in the beheading and he probably joined those who escaped from the prison because he is being implicated in a crime he did not commit,” said Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.
Police and jail officials said another MILF rebel – Kamsa Limaya - also escaped together with the others, but Kabalu said the prisoner is not their member. Limaya is said to be involved in the July 2007 beheading of the soldiers in the town of Al Barka.
“Many of those who escaped are Abu Sayyaf members,” Kabalu said, adding, his group is willing to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation into the jailbreak.
Basilan jail warden Jul Sali said the lack of government support to help improve the prison facility could be blamed for the escape of the inmates.
“We lack vehicles and weapons and we need more guards. We need more support to beef up the security of the prison,” he said.
It was the fourth time in five years that prisoners had escaped from the provincial jail. At least 3 Abu Sayyaf prisoners – tagged as behind the beheading of 10 soldiers in Basilan – also escaped in December 2008 from the provincial jail after overpowering their guards.
And in July 2007, at least 16 hardened criminals, including four Abu Sayyaf militants, escaped from the prison after destroying the windows of their cell.
In April 2004, at least 53 of the more than 130 prisoners at the provincial jail, including 19 Abu Sayyaf members, also escaped using a smuggled .45-caliber pistol which they used in overpowering the guards. (Mindanao Examiner)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Philippine Navy steps up anti-terror ops in Mindanao
Members of the Philippine Navy’s Special Warfare Assault Group inspect a trawler for explosives or illegal weapons Tuesday, July 22, 2009 near Pilas group of islands in the Sulu Sea off Zamboanga City. Admiral Alexander Pama, a regional navy chief, has ordered an intensified patrol in the troubled region following the recent bombings of the Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Indonesia and the spate of bombings in Mindanao and Sulu in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)Authorities blamed the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya and the Abu Sayyaf and Moro rebels for the series of bombings in Sulu and Mindanao in recent weeks that left scores of civilians dead and wounded.
Indonesia also tagged the Jemaah Islamiya for the recent suicide bombings of the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta which killed nine people and wounded at least 53 others.
“We have stepped up our security patrol. We are fighting terrorism here,” Admiral Alexander Pama, the navy’s regional commander in Mindanao, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said navy gunboats regularly patrol the Moro Gulf, the Mindanao, Sulu and Celebes seas, an area where pirates are actively operating.
Last week, authorities seized some 350 kilos of banned ammonium nitrate and 1,800 pieces of blasting caps and detonating cords from a cargo vessel in the central Philippine province of Cebu that was heading for Iligan City in Mindanao.
The spikes in bomb attacks in Mindanao and Sulu also coincided with the release of three kidnapped Red Cross workers held by the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya.
The trio – Swiss national Andreas Notter, Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba and Italian Eugenio Vagni – was kidnapped in January in Sulu after inspecting a humanitarian project at a prison in Patikul town.
Lacaba and Notter were freed separately in April, while Vagni was released this month and there were persistent reports that ransoms had been paid to the Abu Sayyaf for their liberty.
It was, however, unknown whether the ransoms had been used to finance the bombings in the Philippines and Indonesia. The Red Cross denied that it paid ransoms to the kidnappers.
The military has last week deployed hundreds of soldiers in Basilan and Sulu provinces to crush the Abu Sayyaf. (Mindanao Examiner)