Gunmen Seize School Executive In Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 17, 2008) – Unidentified gunmen snatched a budget official of the state-run Mindanao State University in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.

Police said Hipolito Minoza was seized by gunmen on Thursday afternoon on a highway near the village of Bubong in Saguiran town in Lanao del Sur in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.Minoza was on his way to Iligan City from Marawi City when seized, it said.

"Minoza was on a vehicle when gunmen stopped him on the highway," Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, the regional police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but Jabarani has ordered police forces to track down the assailants in the province. "We still don't know who were behind this and the motive of the kidnapping," he said.

But the military was quick to blame the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and even implicated one of its leaders Abdurahman Macapaar in the kidnapping. The rebel leader is being hunted by security forces for leading deadly attacks in August in Mindanao.

The MILF strongly denied the military allegation. "Why blame us for everything? This is absurd and the MILF has nothing to do with the kidnapping, we are not kidnappers, but revolutionaries," Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said in a separate interview.

The MILF is the country's largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao. (J. Magtanggol)

Muslim Groups Assail Gov't "Terrorists" Hysteria As Anti-GMA Rallies Begin

President Gloria Arroyo prays.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 29, 2008) – A Muslim human rights organization on Friday assailed Philippine authorities for using so-called “terrorists” hysteria every time there are anti-Arroyo street protests.

The Suara Bangsamoro, an umbrella organization of human rights and civil society groups, said the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have been making pronouncements about impending attacks by the local Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiya, an Indonesian terror group tied to a string of bombings in Jakarta and Manila.

Philippine police chief Avelino Razon on Friday said they arrested a suspected foreign terrorist believed plotting terror attacks in Manila. Razon made the announcement the same day as huge anti-Arroyo protesters gathered in the capital to demand for the President’s resignation over corruption allegations.

“We have arrested a foreigner suspected of plotting terror attacks, including an assassination on the president,” Razon said.

The Philippine military this week also said that the Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiya and the communist New People’s Army rebels are plotting to bomb civilian targets in Manila. The military also made the same warning last week days before anti-Arroyo protesters held a huge rally in Manila.

“We cannot anymore stomach the use of the police and military the ‘terrorist’ hysteria in a bid to make Arroyo look like a target of terrorist killing in the midst of a mammoth interfaith rally calling for her resignation,” Amirah Lidasan, national president of the Suara Bangsamoro, said.

Opposition and civil society groups demanded Arroyo’s resignation after the president and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo were both linked to alleged scandals involving the flawed and overpriced national broadband network deal with China’s ZTE Corporation.

The president admitted the deal was flawed and cancelled the contract five months later after the scandal broke out. She and husband denied any wrongdoings.

Hundreds of students in Zamboanga and General Santos cities also marched on Friday, many demanding for Arroyo’s resignation. Some 200 students from Mindanao State University in General Santos held a rally and demanded Arroyo to step down.

More than 500 students from different colleges in Zamboanga also gathered at the Ateneo University in Zamboanga where they attended an interfaith forum. They denounced corruption in government. Many lighted candles and demanded Arroyo’s resignation.

The Inter-religious Solidarity Movement for Peace in Mindanao has joined calls for truth and clean, corruption-free society.

“Our country has constantly scored high on the scales of corruption in Asia and the world. As a people, we have seemingly become habituated to the culture of sleaze and dishonesty in the way that many of our leaders carry out their supposed duties to the people.”

“In these days we have again become flooded with these exact same stories of corrupt transactions happening in high places. Information on the blatant manipulation and obstruction of the truth on the NBN-ZTE Project has implicated very important government officials, including the President of this Republic and her family,” it said in a statement. (Mindanao Examiner)