ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 17, 2013) – Separatist rebels have captured Tuesday the police chief of Zamboanga City in southern Philippines as fighting raged for eight days now.
Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo was seized along with his driver and a bodyguard in the coastal village of Mampang, one of several areas under rebel control, but their fate remains unknown.
One policeman was shot and wounded by rebels when his group responded to the capture of Malayo in the village. There were reports that Abu Sayyaf and MNLF rebels managed to sneak into Zamboanga, but security officials could not immediately confirm this
A rebel spokesman phoned a local radio network dxRZ Radyo Agong and confirmed that Malayo and several other policemen are being held captive. The rebels demanded an international mediation to end the violence in Zamboanga that had already killed dozens of people.
“We have no communication with Superintendent Malayo,” Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, a regional police spokesman, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The fighting has forced over 80,000 people fleeing their homes for fear they would be caught in the crossfire or taken captive by rebels. The number of refugees had resulted in a humanitarian crisis and food supply is not enough to feed the evacuees now housed in temporary shelters.
Rebel forces stormed several villages in Zamboanga on September 9 and took at least 180 people hostage and used them as shield against pursuing soldiers. Authorities said at least 145 hostages had been freed and that security forces are still battling over 100 rebels fighting for independence of the southern region.
MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari, who signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996, accused the Aquino government of reneging on the peal deal and launched a new rebellion, the second in more than a decade. In 2001, loyal forces of Misuari also attacked military bases in Zamboanga City and Jolo town in Sulu province and the clashes killed over 100 people. (Mindanao Examiner)
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