Hostage rescue gets green light

ISABELA, Basilan, Philippines – The provincial crisis committee negotiating the release of nine people taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf has authorized the military and police to proceed with rescue operations.

Basilan Vice Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul, chairman of the crisis management committee (CMC), said they adopted the resolution approved yesterday by the provincial board allowing the military and the police to take measures to rescue the hostages from the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

The hostages, abducted separately by the Abu Sayyaf, include teachers Janette de los Reyes, Rafael Mayonado, Freires Quizon; lending company employee Lea Patris, and Sri Lankan peace volunteer Umar Jaleel.

The latest hostage, farmer Bernard Chavez, was snatched last week.

Three other teachers were kidnapped in Naga town, Zamboanga Sibugay province last March. The bandits were demanding P10 million for the release of Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Inion, and Jocelyn Enriquez.

The nine hostages are being held by the group of Abu Sayyaf commander Furuji Indama and several guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sakalahul informed Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro of the decision of the crisis committee to rescue the nine hostages.

Puno and Teodoro were attending an emergency meeting in the capital with Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa and ranking military officials.

“The CMC has exerted efforts in diplomacy but the kidnappers insisted on the ransom. The CMC has given the police and military authority to run after the kidnappers,” Sakalahul told the meeting.

Puno and Teodoro said they are ready to launch the operation “Oplan Sagip Guro,” and ordered the police and military to form a combined group to launch the rescue mission.

“The resolution is a declaration of intent… it will allow the PNP and AFP to go full-force against the kidnappers,” Teodoro said.

Teodoro said the safety of the hostages would be taken into account in the rescue operation.

He said contingencies have been readied for the possible displacement of civilians during the conduct of operations.

“We have prepared for that and there’s enough budget to assist those who will be affected,” he said.

Puno, for his part, said they are also working to encircle the lair of the kidnappers, just as security forces have done against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

Puno said civilian volunteers would serve as police auxiliary forces to protect the city while the rescue operations are ongoing.

At the same time, Teodoro said the combined police and military operation would not consider allegations of encroachment on MILF camps, an excuse often used by the kidnappers to prevent government troops from going after them.

“There will be no sacred grounds as we have to enforce the laws,” Teodoro said.

Puno added a review of the proposed peace accord with the MILF revealed the Muslim guerrilla group does not have any enclaves in Basilan.

Teodoro also claimed some MILF rebels are using the Muslim guerrilla organization as a front to hide their criminal activities in the province.

Asked if the defense department as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government would be asking the local governments of Basilan under Gov. Jum Akbar to place the troubled province under a state of emergency, Teodoro replied this wasn’t necessary given the different situation.

Teodoro was referring to the declaration of a state of emergency by Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan to hasten the early resolution of the hostage crisis in the province involving Red Cross workers Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni.

“We will enforce the law here in Basilan,” Puno told reporters after the meeting.

Puno said he and Teodoro were ordered by President Arroyo to personally oversee security measures in Basilan following the spate of kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf in the region.

Akbar, for her part, said the authority given to the security forces to rescue the hostages would address the kidnapping problem in the province.

Akbar said she will support any move to place the entire province under a state of emergency, but only if necessary.

“If ever we will follow what Sulu has implemented, why not? Because we have once upon a time experienced a similar crisis and we adopted a state of emergency here. It is not new to us,” Akbar said.

The Sulu provincial government, on the other hand, is preparing for a possible military operation to rescue the two Red Cross workers still being held hostage by a separate Abu Sayyaf group.

Last-ditch efforts are being made to negotiate the release of the two hostages by allowing a team of Muslim clerics to negotiate their release.

Puno and Teodoro earlier flew to Sulu to oversee preparations in case efforts to secure the release of the two foreign hostages would fail.