The military said fighting broke out when Marines encountered about 20 Abu Sayyaf members who were believed attempting to disrupt Good Friday Catholic religious rites.
As they withdrew, the Abu Sayyaf dragged away four of their dead members, the military added. Security forces nationwide have remained on alert to prevent more attacks by the Abu Sayyaf.
The military said last week’s arrest of Muslim convert Tyrone David Santos, aka Daud Santos, and the seizure of his explosives cache prevented a car bombing in Metro Manila during Lent.
"Their plans were a car bombing... but this was aborted because of the arrest and the recovery of their explosives," said Capt. Ramon Zagala, National Capital Region Defense Command spokesman.
Zagala said the military believed the Abu Sayyaf was planning a car bombing based on information gathered from computer files, documents, a videotape and the interrogation of Santos.
Santos is still being interrogated and the military hopes to get more details from him on the possible involvement of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror network in the alleged plot, he added.
About 10 sacks of explosives were seized from Santos in a raid in a house in Fairview, Quezon City on March 23.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Director General Arturo Lomibao said they are considering whether to make state witnesses out of arrested terrorist suspects.
"We are developing some state witnesses to help us (pursue other terrorists)," he said. "We will reveal them in due time."
However, Zagala said he has no personal information about any military plan to convince arrested terrorist suspects to become state witnesses. — Roel Pareño, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Christina Mendez, AFP