Sayyaf’s Pinay hostage to be freed for P1.5 million?

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The family of Deborah Yap, who has been held by the Abu Sayyaf since June last year, is preparing for her imminent release this week amid reports that a P1.5-million ransom for the nurse has already been paid.

In an interview with ABS-CBN television, Yap’s brother David Pamaran said yesterday their family is eagerly awaiting the release of the nurse who was seized from a hospital in Lamitan, Basilan on June 2 last year.

He said they are now sprucing up their house and have prepared the foodstuff, like cake, Jelly Ace and glutinous rice, that Yap had earlier requested in one of several letters.

Also yesterday, the children of American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham reiterated their appeal to the Abu Sayyaf to release their parents who were kidnapped from a Palawan resort on May 27 last year.

The couple’s son, Jeff, urged the bandits to release his parents, saying that he deeply missed them, especially his mother’s custom of preparing pizza for the family every Friday.

The hopes of the Yap and Burnham families were buoyed up as the military stepped up its pursuit operations against the bandits in a bid to head off the Abu Sayyaf’s plan to slip the hostages out of Basilan island.

"There is no stopping in the operation... The military pursuit operations continue. We have targets to zero-in," said Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman for the Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) based here.

Servando said local troops and US Special Forces, who are participating in joint RP-US military exercises, are focusing their operations at the boundary straddling Basilan’s capital of Isabela City and the towns of Lantawan, Maluso and Sumisip.

The Southcom hoped anew they would finally succeed in finding the Abu Sayyaf and rescuing the three hostages.

Servando briefed reporters on the ongoing operations as a captured Abu Sayyaf bandit revealed that the group has been planning to slip the hostages out of Basilan.

Captured bandit reveals escape plans

Latip Habibon, a confessed Abu Sayyaf bandit captured Sunday in Barangay Cabcaban in Sumisip, said his cousin and fellow Abu Sayyaf member Omair Sali ordered him to provide a pumpboat to bring the hostages to nearby Tapiantana island.

"They directed me to provide a pumpboat that would ferry us and the hostages to Tapiantana island," Habibon, who is now detained at the Basilan provincial jail, said.

According to Col. Alexander Aleo, commander of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, Habibon was captured as he was hiding from the military while awaiting his cohorts who were supposed to bring him to Tapiantana island.

He claimed he was only forced by Sali to join the Abu Sayyaf by threatening to harm Habibon and his family if he refused to cooperate with the bandits.

Aside from Habibon, the military also captured suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits Alhamzar Limbong and Yahzi Suwaib from a bandit safehouse in Barangay Talon-Talon near Zamboanga City.

Military officials said Limbong and Suwaib each have a P1-million reward on their heads for a string of murders and the kidnapping of dozens of Filipino teachers and students in Basilan two years ago.

Suwaib is believed to be the cousin of Abu Sayyaf ringleader Khadaffy Janjalani while Limbing is allegedly a radio operator of the rebels.

The two allegedly admitted under interrogation that they fled to Zamboanga to escape the military operations in Basilan.

But Southcom deputy spokesman Capt. Noel Detoyato said the military are very wary of information provided by captured Abu Sayyaf bandits because they have been known to deliberately misinform the government troopers in the past.

"But this does not mean that we will disregard the information that we have extracted from the arrested members of the Abu Sayyaf," Detoyato said.

GMA lauds ‘crucial’ US aid in war vs Sayyaf

At Malacañang, President Arroyo cited the importance of US military assistance in the operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

In her regular luncheon briefing for Palace reporters, the President said advanced US surveillance equipment have been particularly helpful in the operation which has recently taken a positive turn.

"The information on their location is much better because of the improved surveillance," Mrs. Arroyo said.

The President, however, refused to predict if the bandits’ three hostages would be released on Easter weekend as was American hostage Jeffrey Schilling last year.

"That’s up to God. In His time, He makes all things beautiful, in His time," the President said.

At the same time, the President said the next joint RP-US military exercise would also likely be held in Mindanao but its focus would be civic action.

"I would like it to continue in Mindanao (but) the next one will be heavy in civic action," she said.

The President said she wanted to use the exercises to finally finish the Basilan island circumferential road that has long been shelved because of the peace and order situation.

"I would like to finally build that circumferential road that has been the dream of Basilan people for decades but was never built because of the peace and order situation," she said. "I would like that to be the main exercise: the building of the road." – With reports from Marichu Villanueva