PNP sends more elite forces to Sulu

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) sent more elite forces to Sulu yesterday to boost the government’s campaign against the Abu Sayyaf terrorists and other hostile groups in Mindanao, as well to finally free a foreign aid worker held hostage for four months.

PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said 117 members of the elite Special Action Force (SAF) will beef up the Marines and elite police forces deployed in Sulu to run after the bandits.

Of the 117, 90 are students while the rest are trained and skilled SAF members. There are nine women in the group.

The PNP chief added that the trainees have been issued Bibles and rosaries.

The policemen might also participate in the search and possible rescue of Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni, who has been in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf since Jan. 15.

Senior Inspector Marlu Conag, SAF spokesman, said the 117 SAF troops left Manila yesterday after a send off ceremony at SAF headquarters in Bicutan, Taguig.

Until the kidnapping of Vagni and his fellow Red Cross workers, SAF trainees were mostly deployed in New People’s Army infested areas.

In Zamboanga City, the military has warned that it would not spare “sacred grounds and sacred personalities” in its campaign against terror after it turned out that 10 of the slain kidnap-for-ransom group leaders in Basilan were members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“The ball is in the court of the MILF. We are just complying with the instructions of the commander-in-chief to run after the terrorists and those involved in the kidnappings,” Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, chief of Task Force Trillium and Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said.

“We would appreciate it if the MILF will justify why these personalities were in their area,” Pama said when asked if the offensive might imperil the resumption of the government’s peace negotiation with the MILF.

Among those killed in the encounter Wednesday in Mohammad Adjul town, Basilan were Usman Lidjal, Ben Mungkay, Toh Hakim Asli, Lobo Pelah, Idris Hasan, Mohammad Mannu and Tibong Nidjalan, all identified as MILF members.

Lidjal and Mungkay had standing warrants of arrest for kidnapping with serious illegal detention.

Mungkay was tagged by the police as among the masterminds in the abduction of a carpenter in Zamboanga City who was beheaded after the victim’s family failed to pay ransom last week.

Recovered after the encounter were high-powered firearms, several rounds of ammunition, and assorted military uniforms and accessories.

Pama also showed pictures of the slain rebels and the seized weapons to prove that the bodies of the slain suspects were not desecrated.

The MILF in a statement on its website identified those killed as their members and questioned the operation of the Marines in its so-called territory. The MILF said the military operation was a “treacherous” attack because the Abu Sayyaf was the purported target of the operation.

But Pama said the MILF has to explain why the suspects in the kidnappings were hiding in their so-called territory.

Pama described the operation as “successful and well planned.”

He, however, expressed sadness that one of the troops, Lt. Idelfonso Alanano, was killed.

Pama said there was no massive evacuation in the areas where the gunbattle took place, and stressed the ongoing military operation will not disrupt the opening of classes in the area.      – With Roel Pareño