MILF Man Arrested In Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 25, 2008) – Military agents arrested Monday a suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel at a coastal village in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga, intelligence sources said.

The man was said to be a follower of MILF commander Usman Lidjal, who has been previously tagged by the military and police as behind the spate of terrorism and kidnappings in Basilan island.

The details of the arrest were not immediately known, but the man was nabbed in the village of Maasin.

The rebel is being investigated at the Western Mindanao Command headquarters, but it unknown if the man had anything to do with the series of grenade attacks in Zamboanga City or what his mission was.

A fragmentation grenade exploded late Saturday inside the port of Zamboanga City, although there were no reports of casualties.

Police said an MK2 grenade was used in the attack. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the blast, but it was fourth grenade attack in a span of two weeks in Zamboanga City.

Nine people were wounded in an MK2 grenade attack outside the Marcian Business Hotel in downtown Zamboanga on August 20. A grenade was hurled inside the Cinema 5 at Mindpro Mall here on August 15, but it failed to explode.

An MK2 grenade was also used in the August 12 attack at the central police headquarters here, although no one was hurt or killed in the blast.

In June, four policemen were injured in a grenade attack at their base in the town of Kabasalan in Zamboanga Sibugay province, about 120 kilometers from here.

Previous bombings in Zamboanga City had been largely blamed to the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Mindanao Examiner)

Pregnant Mom, Child Buried Alive In Zamboanga Landslide

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 24, 2008) – A pregnant mother and her child were killed after a landslide on Tuesday buried a house in Zamboanga city in southern Philippines.

Heavy rains triggered by typhoon Fengshen last week had loosed soil that buried the house of the Candado family near a hillside village called Maasin. “The house was destroyed by the landslide and a pregnant mother and her child were buried alive,” said village chieftain Misael Bernardo.

Bernardo also appealed on radio for equipment to dig through debris and recover the victims. “We need help here. The house is buried and there are two people inside, a pregnant mother and her child,” he told the dxRZ Radyo Agong.

Witnesses said more than half of the house was buried in boulders and mud and villagers dug though debris with their bare hands to retrieve the victims, but failed to save them.

The woman’s husband was working at a construction site when the landslide occurred shortly before 9 a.m. The bodies were recovered three hours later. The woman, Liza, was five months pregnant and her child, Chubby, was only six years old.

The typhoon, whose local codename Frank, left a trail of destruction in the southern Philippines where at least 2 dozen people were reported killed and injured and tens of thousands displaced by flash floods.

But authorities said the death toll across the country could reach to hundreds after a 24,000-ton ferry, the Princess of the Star, with nearly 750 aboard capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province as the typhoon battered central and northern Philippines before heading towards Taiwan.

At least 155 people have been confirmed dead from the fury of the typhoon.

Rescuers have found several dozens of survivors and cadavers from the stricken ferry, owned by Sulpicio Lines. The government has suspended all Sulpicio’s ferries until a maritime investigation into the sinking of the Princess of the Star is finished.

Initial maritime reports said the ferry’s engine malfunctioned and that the captain of the vessel had told passengers to abandon the ship. The captain was among those missing and presumed dead. (Mindanao Examiner)