MILF harboring Sayyaf rebels, hostages — AFP

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels may be harboring in Basilan the band of Abu Sayyaf kidnappers holding captive American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap, the military said yesterday.

Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan told reporters the military believes the three hostages are being kept in any of the MILF camps set up in the Basilan towns of Maluso, Sumisip, Tuburan and Tipo-Tipo.

Adan said the MILF has not only been obstructing efforts to rescue the Burnhams and Yap but is actively involved in the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapping activities.

"It’s possible," he said. "That’s why the (rescue) is taking this long...we know that the (hostages) have been moved from one place to another, sometimes passing through the MILF camps. This is the situation in Basilan, that from time to time, there are MILF communities that harbor and support the Abu Sayyaf."

Government troops will attack known MILF lairs in Basilan once the military proves that the rebels are giving refuge to Abu Sayyaf kidnappers, Adan said.

In Zamboanga City, Army Capt. Noel Detoyato, deputy spokesman for the Armed Forces’ Southern Command, revealed that MILF rebels had welcomed in Basilan the Abu Sayyaf members who kidnapped the Burnhams, American Guillermo Sobero and 16 Filipinos from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan on May 27 last year.

"It is public knowledge (in Basilan) that an MILF party met the Abu Sayyaf bandits when they landed with their captives in Tuburan, Basilan from Dos Palmas," he said. "It was the MILF in Tuburan that made the welcome party for them."

Detoyato said Abu Sayyaf bandits had at "several instances" sought refuge in MILF camps to elude government troops sent to rescue the Burhams and Yap.

"We cannot discount the fact that every time our troops have an encounter with around 15 or 20 Abu Sayyaf, 30 minutes to one hour later, it swells up to 200 because of the presence of the MILF," he said.

At Malacañang, President Arroyo told reporters the government will not suspend peace talks with the MILF despite the revelations of jailed suspected terrorist Fathur Al Ghozi that rebels were involved in the Rizal Day bombings that killed 22 people and wounded over a hundred on Dec. 30, 2000.

"I mean I cannot answer for the MILF before our peace talks," he said. "Because during the time of Erap (deposed President Joseph Estrada), the (MILF) were really in rebellion. But we entered into peace talks with them when I became president. So that Al Ghozi said the (bomb cache) was for the Dec. 30 bombing, that was the year 2000. I was not President yet."

The Rizal Day bombings were brought about by the Estrada administration’s all-out policy against the MILF, she added.

Detoyato said the MILF has been attacking government troops and facilities so the rebels could negotiate peace with the government from a position of strength.

"Every time there is an impending schedule for peace talks, they are attacking and conducting atrocity — these are but old style tune of propagand — apparently to negotiate from a position of strength," he said.

Detoyato said the MILF has been using the ceasefire as a leverage to attack government positions, and challenged the rebels to respect the truce.

"This should not be the case because every time they harass our troops, they violate the very provision they want to stipulate in their ceasefire agreement that there would be offensive action from the government – but they are taking advantage," he said.

Detoyato said the MILF may have links with jailed suspected Al Ghozi and other Southeast Asian terrorist groups belonging to the network of Osama bin Laden.

"They have pronouncements before that they have been receiving foreign aid," he said. "But if you are going to trace events, it would lead you to circumstances."

Mrs. Arroyo said the Abu Sayyaf had lost support from local communities following the government’s anti-poverty and-terrorism campaign in Basilan in July last year.

"Because in the past, there were many people who were feeding the (Abu Sayyaf) but now, the way the (military) put it, their food corridor has narrowed. There has been less and less people feeding them."

Mrs. Arroyo said she was elated to learn that the military had captured Sonny Teng, an alleged aide of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya, who carried a P1-million bounty on his head.

"You know when the victims heard about (Teng’s capture), they went to the (military) camp and mauled (Teng)," she said. "The children, especially the girls they took hostage, were really very angry at him."

Three soldiers have been killed and 16 others wounded in clashes between government troops and MILF guerrillas in the past few weeks.

Adan said the MILF also harassed teachers and pupils Monday, when the rebels fired their guns in the air in a primary school in Shariff Aguak town.

Adan said the rebels sparked the clashes when returning to their former strongholds, which the military seized during the all-out war against the MILF under the Estrada administration.

"The MILF attacked our patrols who are conducting clearing operations in the area," he said. "We must not forget they are there to prevent the re-establishment of any camp by the MILF. They are the ones initiating the encounter."

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said four rebels were killed and 10 others wounded in fresh hostilities that had already ceased. – With reports from Roel Pareño, Marichu Villanueva