DND gives credence to Bin Laden sighting

BAGUIO CITY — Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes is inclined to believe a Mindanao governor’s word that suspected international terrorist Osama bin Laden once set foot in Camp Abubakar to confer with Muslim separatist leaders.

Reyes was reacting to revelations made the other day by Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol that Bin Laden visited Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat in 1997 at the rebel group’s former stronghold.

"I’m sure Governor Piñol knows whereof he speaks. He is the good governor of North Cotabato. He has lots of information. I think we should take his statements very, very seriously," Reyes told reporters at the Philippine Military Academy at Fort Del Pilar here even as there was no independent confirmation from the intelligence community on Piñol’s claims.

He said it was understandable that MILF leaders would deny the statement of Piñol, a sportswriter before venturing into politics.

The governor said Bin Laden gave financial and logistical assistance to the rebel group in 1986 and discussed with Salamat how to further strengthen the fighting capability of the MILF during the visit.

"My informants are very reliable and they told me Bin Laden was really here in Mindanao in 1997," he said last Friday.

Piñol said the United States government must keep the MILF in its list of terrorist groups because of the rebel group’s "strong links" with Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu flatly denied the allegations.

Camp Abubakar, along with 45 major and satellite camps, was overrun by government forces during an all-out war against the MILF in 2000. The camp is now occupied by a contingent of government troops.

Military officials said they had received reports of Bin Laden’s visit to Mindanao in the past but these could not be confirmed.

"We have been trying to verify those reports even before," Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jose Mabanta told The STAR.

Armed Forces Southern Command spokesman Capt. Noel Detoyato said prior to the capture of MILF camps, the intelligence community had been receiving reports on the presence of foreign nationals in rebel-controlled territories, several of which were confirmed.

Detoyato recalled that in October 1997, two Arab-looking nationals staged a suicide attack on the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division in Camp Siongco, Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

The foreigners sprayed heavy machinegun fire and fired several rounds of rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters and had explosive devices strapped to their bodies.

The attackers were mowed down by guns from armored vehicles.

Earlier, the government identified a non-government organization set up by Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Mohammed al-Khalifa, in the country as one of the fronts aiding the MILF and the extremist Abu Sayyaf.