American’s captors arrested in Basilan

Army troops captured three suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in Mindanao last Friday, including the one who stood guard over an American hostage last year, the military said yesterday.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, who will soon head the nation’s armed forces, said the three were captured in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi.

The three had fled the military’s massive campaign against the Abu Sayyaf in nearby Sulu and Basilan provinces but were later sniffed out by military intelligence agents, Cimatu said.

The first to be arrested was Mohammad Taib Amil, who then gave information that led to the arrest of his accomplices, identified as Absal Allian and Sulpil Mulkatil, later that day.

Amil is the younger brother of an Abu Sayyaf leader, Hadji Julhassan Amil, who was killed in a clash with troops in 1995, Cimatu said.

He was also reportedly the one who kept custody of American Jeffrey Schilling, who was rescued from his captors last year during a military offensive against the bandits.

Schilling was taken hostage in August 2000 after visiting the Abu Sayyaf’s camp in Sulu, accompanied by his girlfriend, Ivy Osani, a cousin of Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya.

Schilling, whom Sabaya claimed to be an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency, was rescued by police and troops after eight months in captivity.

Hundreds of troops, assisted by US Special Forces, are hunting down the Abu Sayyaf who have been holding hostage American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipina nurse Deborah Yap for a year now.

Martin Burnham is reportedly suffering from malaria, according to an intelligence report, which the military is now trying to verify, Cimatu said.

Meanwhile, in General Santos City, some alleged victims of the Abu Sayyaf have urged the government to assign special prosecutors to ensure a conviction for the four suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits arrested last week.

The four were allegedly responsible for a spate of bombings in the city that killed 15 people and wounded 50 others last month.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said they received information that one of the suspects, identified as Junion Jikiron, was the mastermind.

In a phone call to a radio station, a man who identified himself as Abu Muslim al-Ghazie claimed responsibility for the bombings. But the military suspects that al-Ghazie was really Jikiron.

Jikiron and his three confederates – identified as Arman Amerodin, his brother Jayhan, and Khalid Mapandi – would be slapped with charges of illegal possession of firearms, Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, said on Friday.

Kyamko said cellular phones seized from the suspects yielded phone numbers of several businessmen from whom, he said, the four were extorting money.

Bank ATM cards seized from the suspects, meanwhile, matched the bank account numbers into which the victims had deposited extortion money.

Mayor Muslimin Sema said they have tightened security throughout the city to keep out the Abu Sayyaf. — With John Unson