ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 14, 2012) – Police and military authorities have expanded Thursday their search for kidnapped Australian man Warren Rodwell in the Muslim provinces of Basilan and Sulu in the southern Philippines.
Police said they received reports that Rodwell, 53, was taken back to Basilan province after failing to merge with another Abu Sayyaf faction under terrorist leader Radulan Sahiron in Sulu.
Sahiron was reported to be ill and did not want to take Rodwell into his custody in the province where security forces are also battling the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants.
Basilan police chief, Senior Superintendent Alexis Lineses said the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers headed by Radzmier Alih returned to the province late on Tuesday on a speedboat and landed in Sumisip town. Alih is a sub-leader of a notorious terrorist commander Puruji Indama.
“On January 10, Australian kidnapped victim Rodwell and his captors, Abu Sayyaf’s Radzmier Alih, of Basilan and some few men left the coastal line of Sitio Bual Nagka in the village of Lumapid in Talipao town in Sulu aboard a jungkong fast motorboat, believed to be heading back to Sumisip in Basilan,” Lineses told the Mindanao Examiner.
“The reason for the transfer were the pressure from the police and military operations and the leaked of information of their presence in Sulu, as well as the unpreparedness of Radulan Sahiron to receive Rodwell in Patikul (town). We are evaluating these reports,” he added.
The military also received similar reports, but has ordered security forces to step up its intelligence and operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Basilan. “We are intensifying our operations – both on the grounds and information gathering – and we are now concentrating our efforts to locate Warren Rodwell,” said Army Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command.
Military authorities also distributed to soldiers photo copies of a picture of Indama, who is said to be holding Rodwell in Basilan.
Rodwell, who was a former Australian army soldier, was kidnapped 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.
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 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 in a separate interview. He did not elaborate.
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 Rodwell.
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. (Mindanao Examiner)
20