NEWSFLASH

NEGOTIATOR ENTERS LAIR OF KIDNAPPERS

SULU, August 27 2002 (STAR) By Marichu Villanueva and Roel Pareño - A negotiator is already in the enemy camp, hold your fire a bit longer.

Though the time has run out for negotiating the release of four female Jehovah’s Witness evangelists held hostage by bandits in Patikul, Sulu, the captives’ families are asking the military to extend the five-day deadline it set for the talks.

A band of kidnappers led by Muin Sahiron, nephew of Abu Sayyaf commander Radulan Sahiron, snatched the six Jehovah’s Witness evangelists in Sulu last week.

Two of the victims were decapitated and their heads were dumped in a public market: 21-year-old Lemuel Montulo and Leonel Mantic, whose tongue was sliced off as well.

The remaining hostages — Norie Bendijo, sisters-in-law Cleofe and Flora Montulo and Emily Mantic — are alive and well, the kidnappers said.

Junie Montulo, elder brother of beheaded hostage Lemuel and hostage Flora, said their negotiator is in place: "May negotiator na kami na nakapasok at nagbigay ng assurance ang mga kidnapper na palalabasin ang mga hostages (We have a negotiator already in the kidnappers’ lair and the kidnappers have assured us they will set the hostages free)."

As the five-day deadline lapses today, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is ready to stage a massive assault operation to liberate the hostages.

Junie and relatives of the other hostages visited Southern Command (Southcom) headquarters to meet with Southcom vice chief Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Diaz and request an extension of the time frame for the negotiations.

"The kidnappers gave us an assurance, so we are asking for an extension," they said.

The deadline for negotiations lapses today, but there is no word from Southcom whether it will heed requests for more negotiation time.

Montulo also denied that the kidnappers demanded a P6-million ransom. "They did not ask us for any ransom payment. All they said was they would set their victims free," he said.

No troop pullout

Malacañang and the military yesterday rejected the demand made by the band of kidnappers that the government withdraw military forces pursuing them before they agree to negotiate for the release of the hostages.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes invoked the order issued by President Arroyo to the military "to go get them (kidnappers)."

"The demand that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) pull out its forces before we do anything is preposterous," Reyes said. "The government is not going to pull out."

He told Palace reporters "the President has instructed us to go all out, get them and that’s what we’re gonna do. There will be no pullout."

Despite the government’s policy against conditional negotiations, Reyes said the military operations against the kidnappers will not prevent Patikul town Mayor Hasser Hayudini from negotiating with the bandits for the safe release of the hostages.

"We’re hoping (the negotiations by Hayudini) would succeed... But we are poised and we will conduct operations to go against these kidnappers," he said.

In Sulu, the sentiments about the military operation are the same. Army 104th Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Romeo Tolentino said his men are still in the operation area and have no intention of pulling out:. "Who will order me (to pull the troops out)? The kidnappers? We will not pull out," he said.

Tolentino added that "our troops are combing the jungle inch by inch (and) the kidnappers are on the run."

A contingent of some 4,000 soldiers from the Marines, Scout Rangers and the US-trained Light Reaction Company are in Sulu to continue the Philippines’ pursuit operations against the Abu Sayyaf and other terrorist and kidnapping groups.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Eduardo Purificacion said Southcom troops have located the general area where the kidnappers are holding their hostages and an assault of the gunmen’s lair would be mounted if negotiations fail.

Besides the four female hostages, another armed group within the same area is still holding three Indonesian seamen for a ransom of P15 million. The Indonesians were kidnapped in June and are also the subject of negotiations and military operations.

Senate’s Lamitan probe closed

In another development, three soldiers accused of endangering their command through gross negligence and carelessness, misbehavior before the enemy and "shamefully" abandoning the command, and other charges face court martial proceedings.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who chairs the Senate committee on national defense, agreed yesterday to hold an executive session to hear the comments of the Senate minority on the Lamitan report, but said he has no intentions of amending the report.

The report contains the results of the Senate inquiry into the pursuit operations of the military against Abu Sayyaf bandits in Lamitan town, Basilan that led to the Lamitan hostage crisis, resolved a year later in Zamboanga de Norte when US missionary Martin Burnham and Filipina nurse Edibora Yap were killed in a rescue operation. Martin’s wife Gracia was shot in the leg during the rescue.

The report was signed by a majority of the defense committee’s members, as well as members of the justice and human rights committee chaired by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Magsaysay said.

The report recommends court-martial proceedings be undertaken against former Task Force Comet chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, former 103rd Infantry Brigade commander Col. Juvenal Narcise and Lamitan commander Maj. Eliseo Campued for their failure to prevent the deaths of Martin Burnham and Yap during the military rescue operations last June.

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara cautioned Magsaysay against closing the door to reopening the Senate probe into allegations of collusion between military officers and the Abu Sayyaf in the Lamitan hostage crisis.

Angara added that the court-martial proceedings should not be limited to Dominguez, Narcise and Campued. "A reconvening of the investigation is needed to hear more witnesses in the wake of this claim of the three officers that they were not the only ones making orders and decisions," he said.

Senators Gregorio Honasan III and Panfilo Lacson, both Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ‘mistahs’ of Dominguez in Class ’71, said higher-ranking military officials should be included in the probe.

Magsaysay, for his part, said that any expansion of the list of officers up for court-martial could be decided on during the court-martial proceedings. Therefore, Magsaysay said, there is no need to hold additional committee hearings on the matter: "I stand by the report. It is finished insofar as I am concerned."

Angara, however, said the Senate minority does not want the three Army officers to become scapegoats in the Lamitan fiasco, thus there is a need for further public hearings.

Angara also said if Magsaysay refuses to hold further public hearings into the matter, the minority members of the committee will not be prevented from making supplemental reports on the Lamitan probe.

Medicine aid

Meanwhile, US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone turned over to Mrs. Arroyo yesterday boxfuls of medicines and medical supplies donated by US-based non-government organizations (NGOs) to help the poor residents of Sulu.

The US envoy gave the donations to Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Paruk Hussin in the presence of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman and Reyes, who is concurrently the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development (CORD) of ARMM.

"Definitely we look at the government effort," Reyes said. He added that "there is a total package of political, economic, social and security efforts (for Mindanao). This collaboration between the American NGOs and locally based NGOs to provide medical assistance will surely go a long way towards confidence-building measures."

According to Reyes this collaboration will be done "with the cooperation of local government officials and religious and social leaders in Sulu."

Ricciardone said the donations of medicines and medical supplies are part of the "humanitarian assistance" provided to the people of Sulu by American NGOs and other private sector groups responding to the calls for help in distressed areas of the world.

"We have learned of the initiatives by your government to bring additional humanitarian assistance to Jolo and we’re very pleased that there is a way that the US private sector can help," Ricciardone said.

Ricciardone accompanied to the Palace the officers of the American Foreign Policy Council led by AFPC senior vice president Al Santoli.

Santoli informed Mrs. Arroyo of the creation of the Development for Peace in Sulu (DPIS) program that aims to help restore peace and order in Sulu though means other than military action.

The DPIS was launched in Malacañang yesterday with the first delivery of $1 million worth of medicines and medical equipment that will be arriving in the Philippines over the next three years for distribution to government hospitals in Sulu.

Define ‘int’l terrorism,’ Biazon asks UN

Meanwhile, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon called on participants in the Second Asia-Europe Parliamentary (ASEP II) meeting to adopt a resolution urging the United Nations (UN) to define "international terrorism."

In a press statement, Biazon said there is a need to define "the parameters of this (US-led) global war against international terrorism."

The senator said this war on terror "could come in conflict with the national policies of countries that are facing internal security problems such as Israel, the Philippines, Chechnya, Indonesia and Columbia."

"There is global concern on the apparent unilateralist policies adopted by the US in pursuing a global campaign against international terrorism," said Biazon, who once served as the AFP Chief of Staff before running for the Senate.

Biazon added that while the Arroyo administration has agreed to cooperate with the US in the war on the terrorist group al-Qaeda and its links to the Abu Sayyaf, this relationship between the two allies is being "questioned by some sectors of society."

"Because of this seemingly unilateral stance of strong nations who have joined the fight against international terrorism, there is a need to review our existing international multilateral and bilateral treaties and agreements on security," Biazon said.

Biazon warned: "This global war so declared by strong nations supported by weak nations may render these treaties and agreements obsolete."

In his appeal to international lawmakers, Biazon cited earlier statements issued by US President George W. Bush that countries that do not join in the war on international terrorism will be deemed as siding with terrorists. — With Efren Danao, Sammy Santos, AFP