AFP to publish photos of suspects behind Marines’ beheading

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military plans to publish photos of the Abu Sayyaf bandits involved in the beheading of 10 Marines in Basilan last July 10.

At present, the military is still validating the photographs of the suspects prior to publication so as not to cause inconvenience to innocent people.

“We keep on updating the pictures, the gallery that we have for publication,” Esperon said.

It will be recalled that at the height of the Sipadan hostage crisis in Sulu in 2002, the AFP released thousands of posters containing photographs of key Abu Sayyaf commanders led by the late Khadaffy Janjalani and Ghalib Andang, who were involved in the kidnapping.

However, Manila-based journalists were surprised to see the picture of their fellow reporter Bernadette Tamayo in the Abu Sayyaf’s rouge gallery.

Realizing the mistake, the military leadership recalled the posters it had ordered distributed to various military and police units nationwide.

“There is a need to complete the verification. We do not want to publish pictures of (innocent) people,” Esperon said. – Jaime Laude