ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 29, 2012) – The Philippine military on Monday implicated former Muslim rebels, whose group had signed a peace deal with Manila, to the kidnappings of two European wildlife photographers and a Jordanian television reporter and his two Filipino cameramen now being held captive in Sulu province.
This after the Moro National Liberation Front accused the military of attacking its forces under Tahir Usman in Sulu’s Patikul town over the weekend, sparking a five-hour gun battle that left 17 soldiers dead and wounded.
Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, said Abu Sayyaf and MNLF forces attacked troops sent to investigate the reported presence of Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, who were kidnapped this year in Tawi-Tawi province; and Baker Atyani, 43, of Al Arabiya News Channel, and his crew Rolando Letrero, 22, and Ramelito Vela, 39.
“As far as we are concerned, government troops clashed with the group of Abu Sayyaf and MNLF forces in Patikul and they are holding the three foreign kidnapped victims, who are the center of our operations in Sulu,” Cabangbang told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner, adding troops are still searching for the trio.
There was no report about the fate of the Filipino hostages, who were hired by Atyani in Manila, to film his clandestine interview with Abu Sayyaf and MNLF rebels in Sulu.
The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a Japanese treasure hunter Katayama Mamaito, 64, who was kidnapped in 2010 in Sulu, and an Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell, 57, taken last year from his seaside home in Zamboanga Sibugay province. There were also no reports about the Mamaito and Rodwell.
The fighting in Sulu came a day after the Muslim celebration of the Eid’l Adha.
Senior Supt. Antonio Freyra, the Sulu police chief, said they put up checkpoints and road blocks in key areas to ensure protection of civilians.
He said the military operation was not coordinated with the local police, but he was told by a military commander that troops were on a routine change of tour of duty when Abu Sayyaf gunmen attacked them.
“We were not informed about the military operation and I was only told that it’s a routine change of tour of duty among troops when the Abu Sayyaf attacked them in Patikul,” Freyra said in a separate interview.
It was not immediately known how many people have fled from their homes due to the fighting, he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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