ISABELA, Basilan - Three soldiers and at least 17 Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed as government troops continued ground and air assaults yesterday on the Basilan mountain stronghold of the Muslim extremists who are holding 27 hostages.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesman said two hostages, one of them a child, were wounded in the shelling of their camp. The military, however, said the report could not be confirmed.
The rebels warned Saturday they would behead their five remaining male hostages if the military did not stop attempts to rescue the 27 hostages, including a Catholic priest, children and teachers who were abducted from two schools last March 20.
Ignoring the threat, Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes said the military would not stop the offensive until the hostages were rescued and the rebels eliminated.
The troops were being guided by former Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The decision to attack the Abu Sayyaf camp was made by the provincial crisis management committee that handled negotiations for the hostages' release.
The committee's spokesman, Cris Puno, said the Abu Sayyaf beheaded two hostages last April 19 - President Estrada's 63rd birthday - and this act left negotiators with no option but to resort to military operation.
Two soldiers, Sgt. Romano Luod and Pfc. Sagat Misuari, and militiaman Erwin Laping were first to fall in the assault, launched by about 500 troops starting early Saturday, said Maj. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, chief of the military's Southern Command (Southcom).
At least 17 of rebels have also been killed while an undetermined number have been wounded, he said.
Col. Ernesto de Guzman, also a Southcom official, said 10 rebels were reportedly killed by their own comrades after finding out that they wanted to flee to Sulu before the military's assault began.
De Guzman, however, said they still have to verify if this report was true.
Rebel spokesman Abu Ahmad told local radio station dxRZ that there had been no casualties among the guerrillas and insisted they would rather die than surrender.
Ahmad was quoted by local television ABS-CBN News as saying that two of the hostages were wounded by shrapnel from military air strikes. And he reportedly said that those killed on the side of the government were blown up by landmines.
Villanueva, on the other hand, said Air Force helicopters were firing rockets at outlying rebel camps to allow ground troops to penetrate Camp Abdurajak, the main rebel lair at Mt. Ponoh Hadjhid in Sumisip, Basilan where most of the hostages are believed to be held.
"We have reached their defense perimeters... There is gunfire on both sides but we are in the periphery," Villanueva said.
Navy ships have also been deployed to prevent the rebels from escaping and receiving reinforcements from comrades in nearby provinces, he added.
"I feel it's about time we stop talking with these fanatics," Villanueva added. "Otherwise, from the way they have been acting, they will just kill the hostages one by one."
The Abu Sayyaf, which is one of the two groups fighting for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao, has demanded the release of Ramzi Yousef, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, and two other Islamic militants held in the United States.
The military said it would not know how serious was the rebels' threat to behead their hostages if the three militants are not released.
The hostages have been in captivity for 35 days now.
Meanwhile, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile expressed full support yesterday to the military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf.
Enrile, a former defense minister, said the offensive was "appropriate and correct."
Though admitting that the assault could endanger the lives of the Abu Sayyaf hostages, Enrile said the decision to attack had been consulted with the relatives of the captives who all agreed that such drastic action was needed.
"I believe all hostages are still alive," he said. "I saw their spokesman on television and he appeared to be engaging in psywar operation."
President Estrada yesterday prayed for peace in Mindanao, urging Filipinos to unite. "Let us pray that our misguided brethren would be enlightened so they would shun violence," he said.
Although he did not mention anything on the Abu Sayyaf, the President let Press Secretary Ricardo Puno to announce that the military assault against the group would continue.
Puno said they have not confirmed yet if the extremists indeed beheaded two of their hostages. "We can only know the truth from an independent confirmation or once the military gets into the Abu Sayyaf camp," he said.
In other developments, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel admitted that only the adoption of a federal system of government could be the ultimate solution the Muslim insurgency problem in Mindanao.
Pimentel, who is batting to strengthen the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said a federal system like that in the United States may well be the "ultimate constitutional response to the just aspirations of the Bangsamoro people."
He said that under such system, component states enjoy full autonomy in their internal affairs although certain powers like foreign relations and national defense and security are still exercised by the central government.
Pimentel, however, admitted that since the adoption of a federal system requires a thorough revision of the Constitution, it will have to wait for a more appropriate time.
"Perhaps when people are more receptive of the idea that the Constitution is not meant to be a static document, then it may be amended to conform to the needs of the times," he said.