MILF deploys forces to rescue kidnapped Chinese matriarch in Mindanao

A Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldier stands guards at a village checkpoint in Maguindanao province in Mindanao. The MILF has ordered its forces to rescue kidnapped Filipino-Chinese matriarch Conchita Tan, seized October 8, 2010 in Cotabato City in Maguindanao. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 10, 2010) – Philippine Muslim rebels have joined government efforts to rescue a Filipino-Chinese matriarch kidnapped in the troubled region of Mindanao, south of the country.

The order came from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Central Committee.Rebel forces were also told to coordinate with Filipino authorities to avoid clashes with state soldiers also tracking down the 73-year old Conchita Tan.

Sammy Al Mansoor, who heads the military wing of the MILF, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, ordered rebel forces to exert all efforts to rescue Tan, who was kidnapped October 8 in Cotabato City in Maguindanao province after gunmen shot and killed two of her escorts.

Tan owns a hardware store in Cotabato and was heading home with her husband when gunmen attacked them. Tan’s husband was not hurt in the attack.

Von Al Haq, a spokesman for the MILF, said the rescue mission is a unilateral effort of the MILF because of an existing accord with the government.

The MILF forged an agreement with Manila in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating.

“The Chief of Staff of Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces directed all commanders on the ground to rescue the kidnap victim and block all possible entries and exits (in Maguindanao), and shoot-to-kill the kidnappers if they fight back,” Al Haq said.

He said Tan is being held by a kidnapping syndicate headed by Mayangkang Saguile, a notorious bandit operating in Maguindanao province. “We have information that Mayangkang Saguile is holding the victim and we have pinpointed their hideout in Maguindanao,” he said.

The MILF in August also helped in the release of a kidnapped Chinese-Filipino trader Nestor Tay after three days in captivity in North Cotabato province. Tay, owner of the New Asian Marketing, was freed in Midsayap town.

The release of Tay came a day after Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels joined the search for the kidnapped trader. “Tay was freed because of the pressure exerted by the MILF to the kidnappers,” Al Haq said, adding, rebel forces had been mobilized in coordination with the ad-hoc joint action group to search and pressure the kidnappers to free Tay without ransom.

Gunmen abducted Tay in Cotabato City after barging inside his store and disarmed a security guard before dragging him away to a waiting van outside.

Kidnappings-for-ransom is not uncommon in Cotabato and dozens of wealthy traders had been kidnapped in the past and freed after their family paid ransoms to their captors.

The MILF, which is fighting for decades for self-determination, is currently negotiating peace with the Aquino government in an effort to put an end to bloody clashes in Mindanao, which had been ruled in the past by sultans. (Mindanao Examiner)

MILF orders rebel forces to fight kidnappings-for-ransom in South RP

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 30, 2009) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has ordered its 12,000-strong mujahideen to fight kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Mindanao.

It also ordered rebel forces to arrest and take drastic actions against kidnappers in areas where the MILF is actively operating. It was the second order in seven years that the MILF told rebels to fight kidnappings-for-ransom.

Police and military authorities have accused rogue MILF members of either coddling kidnappers or themselves involved in the nefarious activities in Mindanao to raise fund for the purchase of weapons or finance their secessionist campaign.

“The Central Committee of the MILF directs its freedom fighters comprising the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces to arrest and take drastic actions against the perpetrators of this heinous crime until these criminal activities are neutralized and stopped in MILF areas,” said an MILF order signed on Monday by the Front’s chief of staff, Sammy Al-Mansur.

“Anti-kidnapping task force is hereby organized for this purpose. For strict compliance and implementation,” it further said.

The order was also signed by Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF’s vice chairman for political affairs.

Authorities said Moro rebels were behind the kidnappings of wealthy traders, including an Italian priest, Luciano Benedetti, in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998. Benedetti, 52, was held for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.

In 2001, renegade MILF rebels also snatched Fr Giuseppe Pierantoni as the 44-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur. The priest was freed after six months in captivity in exchange for an unspecified ransom, but he claimed to have escaped from his kidnappers. His companions claimed he suffered from Stockholm syndrome, a phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.

Kidnappings-for-ransom has become a lucrative business for rebels and criminal syndicates in Mindanao, where many areas are underdeveloped and job opportunities are scarce. Sometimes criminal gangs kidnapped civilians and hand them over to rebels in exchange for a cut in the ransom. Poverty has been blamed for many kidnappings in the South.

In February 2002, the MILF also issued a similar order after Manila sought its help in running after kidnappers in the southern Philippines. President Gloria Arroyo, who opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001, also signed a truce with rebels.

And in 2004, the MILF forged an agreement with Manila that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating.

But peace talks collapsed in August last year after the MILF accused Arroyo of reneging on a preliminary Muslim homeland deal. The Supreme Court said the agreement which was initially signed in Malaysia in July 2008 is unconstitutional.

Since then, fighting between military and rebel forces continue. The MILF said it will not resume peace talks unless Arroyo honors the ancestral domain deal. Arroyo is to step down next year without any significant deal with the MILF. (Mindanao Examiner)