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Difference between revisions of "Zamboanga Sibugay News"
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==Philippines steps up efforts to locate kidnapped Aussie man== | |||
*Source: http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20120113013429 | |||
*Friday, January 13, 2012 02:34:29 PM | |||
:by Mindanao Examiner | |||
ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 13, 2012) – Philippine authorities have stepped up efforts to locate a former Australian soldier kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants with links to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya in the restive southern region of Mindanao. | |||
Warren Rodwell, 53, was kidnapped on December 5 by gunmen disguised as policemen from his home in the seaside town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay where he married a Filipino woman, Miraflor Gutang, 27, in June last year. | |||
The kidnappers demanded $2 million ransom from his wife in exchange for his freedom, but the woman said they cannot afford to pay. Both the Philippines and Australia flatly rejected the ransom demand. | |||
The governor of Zamboanga Sibugay, Rommel Jalosjos, who is negotiating with the kidnappers for Rodwell’s freedom, has imposed a news blackout and blamed the police for the leak of a video of the Australian adventurer sent by the Abu Sayyaf to his family in the province. | |||
Military authorities said Rodwell was brought by his captors by boat to Basilan province and is being held by a notorious terrorist commander Puruji Indama, also blamed for the July 2011 kidnappings of a US woman and her son, including a Filipino nephew in Zamboanga City. | |||
But Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses, commander of police forces in Basilan province, citing a report by Jalosjos, said Rodwell was spirited out to Sulu province by the kidnappers and is being held by another Abu Sayyaf faction. | |||
“That’s the report we got and we are trying to verify this information that Rodwell was taken to Sulu province,” Lineses told the Mindanao Examiner. | |||
But Sulu police commander, Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra, said there was no indication that Rodwell is in the province. “Right now, we have no reports from our operatives on the ground about the presence of Warren Rodwell in Sulu, but we are exerting efforts to also verify that information,” he said in a separate interview. | |||
Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding a kidnapped Japanese man, an Indian national and two Malaysians and several Filipinos in the Sulu Archipelago. | |||
Philippine authorities have admitted the presence of Jemaah Islamiya terrorists in Sulu province. Western Mindanao military chief, Lieutenant General Raymundo Ferrer said they have identified 5 Jemaah Islamiya members who are being protected by the Abu Sayyaf. The group was involved in the deadly Bali bombings in 2002 that killed more than 200 people, mostly Australian holidaymakers. | |||
He said the terrorists – Qayim, Mauiya, Marwan, Saad and Amin Baco – are being hunted down by security forces. Mauiya was one of those who held three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross – Italian national Eugenio Vagni, Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba who were kidnapped in 2009. The trio was freed after private negotiators allegedly paid a huge ransom to the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya. | |||
Australia warned its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution in the Philippines and banned all travel to Central and Western Mindanao, including the Zamboanga Peninsula and Sulu Archipelago. | |||
The military maintained that Rodwell is still being held by Indama’s group in Basilan province. “As far as we are concerned, our operation to locate Rodwell is still concentrated in Basilan. We have no reports that Rodwell has been moved by the Abu Sayyaf to Sulu province,” said Army Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command. | |||
Cabangbang said there were many unconfirmed reports from various sources about Rodwell. “There are so many reports about the kidnapped Australian and all these could be part of a diversionary plan to muddle the operation to recover Rodwell,” he said. | |||
The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, has offered Manila to help rescue Rodwell. The Filipino government and the MILF forged an agreement in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help authorities hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating. | |||
Lawyer Abdul Dataya, head of the MILF ad-hoc joint action group, said latest information suggests that Rodwell is still in the Zamboanga Peninsula, which comprises the province of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga City. | |||
“We have reports from our MILF forces that Rodwell is in Zamboanga Peninsula. We cannot give anymore details about it, but we have forces tracking down the kidnappers and Rodwell,” Dataya said without further elaborating. | |||
The MILF previously warned government troops searching for Rodwell to stay away from their camps to avoid clashes. As many as 2,000 soldiers in Basilan are searching for the former Sydney man. | |||
The MILF has in the past repeatedly ordered its 12,000-strong mujahidin to fight kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Mindanao. It previously helped in rescuing many Filipino and foreign kidnapped victims in the restive region and provided the Philippine government with a list of names of suspected Jemaah Islamiya militants hiding in Mindanao. | |||
But police and military have linked some of its rogue commanders and members to the spate of kidnappings in the South. And authorities also implicated a senior rebel leader Barahama Ali in the kidnapping of Rodwell, an accusation strongly denied by the MILF. | |||
Rodwell, a prolific world traveler and English teacher in China, has appealed for his safe release. “To my family please do whatever to raise the two million US dollars they are asking for my release as soon as possible. To the government, to the Filipino government especially the government of Zamboanga Sibugay, Rommel, I’m appealing to you please help me to coordinate with my family to raise to whatever money is being asked.” | |||
“To the Australian embassy here in the Philippines, this is your constituent appealing for his life and safety. Please help facilitate to give the group the demand. Yes, I was former army of my country but it is differently particularly the terrain. The only solution to ensure my safety is to go with whatever they need. If I’m given my last wish, my last wish is to please help me out of here alive please Madame Ambassador,” the distressed Rodwell said in the video sent by the kidnappers. | |||
==Sayyaf slips through military dragnet== | ==Sayyaf slips through military dragnet== | ||
*Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/regions/14889-sayyaf-slips-through-military-dragnet | *Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/regions/14889-sayyaf-slips-through-military-dragnet | ||
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Manila and Canberra rejected the payment of ransom to the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings of foreigners in the troubled South. | Manila and Canberra rejected the payment of ransom to the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings of foreigners in the troubled South. | ||
==Police refuse Aussie kidnappers' demand== | ==Police refuse Aussie kidnappers' demand== | ||