ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Philippine military on Monday said gunmen who attempted to abduct crew members of a tugboat happened in Sabah waters and not in Tawi-Tawi province which is near the Malaysian state.
Malaysian’s The Star Online reported that at least 10 gunmen were involved in the failed abduction near Lahad Datu’s Tambisan area after crew members locked themselves in a room. It said the armed men, believed from the Southern Philippines, managed to sneak into Sabah and boarded the tug boat on the evening of August 9.
Crew members quickly radioed for help and patrolling members of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) responded immediately and forced the gunmen to escape.
The report also quoted Esscom commander Datuk Hazani Ghazali as saying the crew were ferrying palm oil from Felda Sabahat in Tengku and on their way to Kuantan when the gunmen came alongside their boat in Tambisan waters near the southern Philippines’ Tawi-Tawi chain of islands.
Hazani said security remains tight in the border. “Esscom will not compromise on security and will take continuous efforts to monitor and tighten security in the area particularly in the hotspots,” he said.
Brig. Gen. Custodio Parcon, commander of the Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi, said the incident was well inside Sabah’s territorial waters. “Tambisan is within the waters of Malaysia and 45 nautical miles away from Panguan Island, which is the nearest island of Tawi-Tawi to Sabah,” he said.
Parcon said the alleged perpetrators were not yet validated to be members of the Abu Sayyaf group. “Basing from their actions, they could have been anyone except the Abu Sayyaf group,” he said.
He said they have destroyed the backbone of the Abu Sayyaf in Tawi-Tawi, one of 5 provinces under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, following intensified military campaign and surrender of many of its fighters the past years.
“We have successfully destroyed the Abu Sayyaf group operating in Tawi-Tawi. In fact, the Joint Task Force has prevented the conduct of piracy at sea and kidnappings-for-ransom since February 2017,” he said, adding, President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged the accomplishments of the Joint Task Force in cooperation with the armed forces of both Malaysia and Indonesia.
“Your Armed Forces is focused in accomplishing its mandate of protecting the state and securing our people,” he said.
Malaysia and Indonesia have a border patrol agreement with the Philippines and share regular intelligence and conduct trilateral maritime patrols to prevent piracy and terrorism, including ransom kidnappings of sailors in the maritime borders.
The military previously said that security is tight in the border to prevent Abu Sayyaf kidnappings inside Sabah or in the waters of Tawi-Tawi which is frequented by cargo boats. The Abu Sayyaf is still holding several foreign hostages in the restive southern region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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