COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 3, 2012) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front has offered to help in rescuing kidnapped Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell who is being held by the Abu Sayyaf, a small, but the most notorious terror group in the country.
Rodwell, 53, was kidnapped by a local gang in the seaside town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay and handed over to the Abu Sayyaf in the Muslim province of Basilan, just several nautical miles south of here.
“We have directed the MILF ad hoc joint action group to coordinate with the government counterpart so we can help in the safe recovery of Rodwell,” Mohagher Iqbal, the Front’s deputy chairman and head of the panel negotiating peace with Manila, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Manila and the MILF forged an agreement in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating.
Authorities said the former Australian soldier is being held by Puruji Indama, a notorious terrorist commander blamed for a spate of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. Some of his victims were killed after their families failed to pay ransoms.
Rodwell, a prolific world traveler and English teacher in China, married Filipina Miraflor Gutang, 27, in June this year in Ipil town after they met through the internet.
Police said the kidnappers have demanded an initial P1 million (about $22,600) ransom. It said the kidnappers sent four pictures of Rodwell to his wife as “proof of life.”
Gutang appealed to the kidnappers to free Rodwell, saying he is not rich and ill, but she did not elaborate on his condition.
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.
Iqbal said the MILF is ready and willing to help in the rescue efforts in Basilan, a known rebel stronghold in Mindanao, but Manila and Canberra have not contacted the rebel group or sought assistance to recover Rodwell from the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.
“There is a mechanism to all these through the ad-hoc joint action group, but the Philippine government and even the Australian embassy have made no efforts to contact us and work together with Philippine authorities to get back Warren Rodwell,” he said.
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.
Police and military have blamed Indama for kidnapping US woman Gerfa Lunsmann, her son Kevin and a Filipino relative in July in Zamboanga City. The three were released separately after the woman’s husband, Heiko Lunsmann, paid a huge ransom to Abu Sayyaf, which has links with the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya terrorist organizations.
Zamboanga Sibugay Governor Rommel Jalosjos, who worked for years as chef in Australia, has imposed a news blackout on the kidnapping at the request of the Australian embassy which earlier formed a consular task force to deal with the Rodwell case.
The Abu Sayyaf has contacted Jalosjos twice and asked him to negotiate Rodwell’s safe release, but the Australian embassy wanted a professional police negotiator to handle talks for his freedom. The Australian Federal Police is also closely monitoring the progress of Rodwell’s negotiations.
A massive search was launched by Philippine authorities in Basilan to rescue Rodwell.
The group is still holding an Indian, two Malaysians and a Japanese man in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
20