Abu Sayyaf threatens teachers in Basilan

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Police and the military tightened security for public school teachers assigned in far-flung places in Basilan island following intelligence reports that bandits, who escaped from detention last April 10, were plotting to abduct them.

The report was confirmed by a state-run college administrator but said the threat was not new.

"This threat against our teachers is nothing new, it just comes and goes," Luningning Misuares, president of the Basilan State College, said over local radio rgMA yesterday.

Basilan Provincial PNP director Superintendent Bensali Jabarani said the reported Abu Sayyaf threat was intercepted by villagers and was reported to the authorities secretly.

The intelligence report disclosed that the Abu Sayyaf bandits, who plot to abduct school teachers, are led by Abu Black with six members who were among the 53 inmates who bolted the Basilan Provincial Jail last April.

Jabarani said the teachers are now being escorted by the police, while military troops are conducting patrols in places considered as threatened areas.

The provincial Department of Education (DepEd) office assured this reporter that the teachers are very much secure and besides, most of those assigned in remote places are natives of the area and are familiar with the environment and community.

Police and education officials said they have already anticipated all the possible threats against the teachers and students, after previous kidnapping incidents, including the infamous Tumahubong, Sumisip mass abduction in March 2000 where six teachers, including a priest, were murdered by the Abu Sayyaf group. — Roel Pareño