ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 8, 2012) – Troops recovered chemicals used for manufacturing homemade explosives following a clash Wednesday with suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the southern Filipino port city of Zamboanga, officials said.
Officials said soldiers chased four armed men who escaped on the village of Landang Laum where the fighting occurred at around 9.45 a.m.
“There were no reports of casualties on both sides. We recovered a boat, IED components, electrical wires, a 9-volt battery, blasting cap and ammonium nitrate, said Army Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, commander of an anti-terror task force in Zamboanga.
He said among the four men were the notorious Pingli brothers who were involved in the kidnapping of three government teachers – Freires Quizon, Janette delos Reyes and Rafael Mayorada – in Zamboanga City in 2009.
“The gunmen were a local group, but connected with the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan province, and involved in the kidnapping of the three teachers three years ago,” Pascual told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said more troops and government militias were deployed in Zamboanga to track down the gunmen. It was unknown whether the men were planning a terror attack or kidnapping in Zamboanga City.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding two Malaysians, a Japanese national, an Indian man, an Australian citizen and three Filipinos in Basilan and Sulu provinces. A Dutch and a Swiss wildlife photographers were also kidnapped last week in Tawi-Tawi province. (Mindanao Examiner)
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