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| Lamitan Siege of 2001; ASG attacked Lamitan on May 2001 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Tue Jun 3, 2014 11:28 pm (925 Views) | |
| Flipzi | Tue Jun 3, 2014 11:28 pm Post #1 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Lamitan Siege of 2001 Summary: May 27: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Dos Palmas resort off the western Philippine island of Palawan and seize 20 hostages, including three Americans: missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Kansas and Californian Guillermo Sobrero. Arroyo rules out ransom and unleashes the military against the kidnappers. June 1: Clashes erupt between government troops and the kidnappers who are spotted in Tuburan town in Basilan island, some 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from Palawan. June 2: An Abu Sayyaf "suicide squad" take over a hospital and church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, holding as many as 200 hostages. Four of the hostages from the Palawan resort are recovered in Lamitan. Philippines troops and rebels in street clashes 02/06/2001 - 11:40:47 Deadly street battles erupted in a southern Philippines town today as a self-styled ‘‘suicide squad’’ of Muslim extremists invaded a hospital and church, seizing patients, doctors and a priest. Abu Sayyaf junior leader Abu Suleiman claimed he was holding 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were being held. Meanwhile, other Abu Sayyaf rebels who raided a beach resort six days ago and took 20 hostages including three Americans clashed with troops in nearby dense jungle. Local reports said one hostage, a resort security guard, was rescued. Suleiman phoned local radio station Radio Mindanao Network to say he was commanding a ‘‘suicide squad’’ that had taken control of the hospital in Lamitan, on the southern island of Basilan. He threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Witnesses said the assault involved between 40 and 60 Abu Sayyaf terrorists, and rebel snipers were strafing troops from atop the church and hospital. Civilians fleeing the area said at least one building at the scene of the fighting was in flames. ‘‘They attacked at 4am (2100 BST Friday) when we were guarding the school,’’ said Esmeraldo Supil, a militiaman who was shot in the leg and was being treated in a hospital in the nearby provincial capital Isabela. ‘‘We returned fire.’’ Lamitan Mayor Inocente Ramos said ‘‘there is heavy fighting and many killed. There are big explosions.’’ He said Abu Sayyaf members invaded a hospital and a church in Lamitan, one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. He said they were holding a priest and several patients at St Peter’s hospital. Bidong Ismael, a town councillor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed in the fighting along with one soldier and a militiaman. ‘‘There are explosions going on now,’’ he said. Ramos said soldiers and police had apparently surrounded the church and hospital but were under heavy fire from rooftop snipers. A police jeep, an army armoured car and a truck were hit in front of the church and are immobilised, said RMN reporter Jun Ramos, reporting from the scene under heavy fire. Thousands of civilians clogged roads leading out of Lamitan, home to 10,000-20,000 people, to flee the fighting. Less than six miles away, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle with an estimated 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, the military said. As of late Friday, two soldiers, several civilians and some guerrillas were reported dead, and 14 soldiers injured, as the army fought to rescue the 20 hostages including three Americans seized from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines last Sunday. But fighting continued throughout the night and casualties were expected to rise. RMN reported the military rescued one hostage, resort security guard Eldrin Morales, and he was airlifted to the nearby city of Zamboanga. He apparently sustained injuries below his ear. Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages, spoke on Radio Mindanao Network periodically early today, asking the government to halt its offensive. ‘‘We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. "There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution,’’ Ganzon said, apparently in tears. It was not clear whether she and the three American hostages were with the rebels in Lamitan or in the jungle. Unlike yesterday, no gunshots were audible in the background. The sporadic but often intense clashes began just before dawn yesterday when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called RMN, claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest. There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages. Several civilians in the area were hit by shrapnel from an errantly fired grenade. Soldiers who pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth, where visibility was estimated at only 15 yards, found the bodies of an unspecified number of rebels. Military officials said they believed others had been dragged away. Military spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan said late yesterday that one group of rebels were in a valley about four miles from the shore. Troops were trying to cut off an escape route and surround them. ‘‘The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage,’’ Adan said. It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their captives into at least two groups. http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2001/0603/world/philippines-troops-and-rebels-in-street-clashes-14431.html information about the town of Lamitan, Basilan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamitan VIDEO: Documentary of the Lamitan encounter between the AFP and the ASG in 2001 by Howie Severino Uploaded on Jun 8, 2007 Howie Severino's report on the hostilities in Lamitan, Basilan Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TLAFDUE80 Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEygdz5WDME Related article on Howie Severino's report http://stevenwarran-backstage.blogspot.com/2012/10/howie-severinos-report-on-hostilities.html Video: Gracia Burnham "My Story" Uploaded on Jul 27, 2009 From the Stuck in the MIddle Story tour. Gracia shares her story of kidnap and rescue and her faith through it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru4tckcnPgQ References: Chronology of Philippines hostage crisis http://web.archive.org/web/20010605164739/http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010602/1/r34v.html The Battle of Lamitan Hospital http://stevenwarran.blogspot.com/2012/08/april-18-2000-philippine-daily-inquirer.html Akbar and the ghost of the Lamitan siege http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/08/20/akbar-and-the-ghost-of-the-lamitan-siege/ Philippine Rebels Escape, Headless Bodies Found http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=articles&id=641 Philippine Kidnappers Slip Away, Some Hostages Free http://web.archive.org/web/20010609032805/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010603/wl/philippines_kidnap_dc_43.html Gracia and Martin Burnham's extraordinary story of being kidnapped by terrorists http://www.dohi.org/us/proddetail.php?prod=030311_1 Gracia Burnham on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gracia-Burnham/263558310327731 Edited by Flipzi, Tue Jun 3, 2014 11:44 pm.
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:03 am Post #2 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Book and Movie based on the accounts of Gracia Burnham Book: ![]() In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham In the Presence of My Enemies, the gripping true story of American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham’s year as hostages in the Philippine jungle, was a New York Times best seller and has sold nearly 350,000 copies. Now releasing in trade softcover for the first time, this updated edition has a new look and contains never-before-published information on the capture and trial of the Burnhams’ captors; Gracia’s secret return trip to the Philippines; and updates on recent events in Gracia’s life, ministry, and family. http://www.amazon.com/Presence-My-Enemies-Gracia-Burnham/dp/0842381392/ref=la_B001K8VDW0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401810591&sr=1-1 Gracia Burnham Introduction video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWfnyMUzPDs Video (30 minutes) "My Story" by Gracia Burnham http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi3u5h_my-story-gracia-burnham_news Gracia Burnham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracia_Burnham Gracia and Martin Burnham's extraordinary story of being kidnapped by terrorists http://www.dohi.org/us/proddetail.php?prod=030311_1 Gracia Burnham on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gracia-Burnham/263558310327731 Martin & Gracia Burnham Foundation http://www.graciaburnham.org/index.asp?sec=4_1_2 Movie: Wikipedia photo Captive (2012 film) Captive is a 2012 French-Filipino drama film directed by Brillante Mendoza and starring Isabelle Huppert. The film was screened in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. The plot focuses on describing the torturous life of the hostages of the Dos Palmas kidnappings, whose survivors were freed after a year in captivity. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699745/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_(2012_film) Edited by Flipzi, Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:07 am.
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:17 am Post #3 |
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R.A.T.S.
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![]() credit to http://www.dohi.org Published Date:3/3/2011 Gracia and Martin Burnham's extraordinary story of being kidnapped by terrorists Dan Wooding ANS -Gracia Burnham, who was born January 17, 1959, in Cairo, Illinois, worked alongside her pilot husband Martin, for 17 years from 1986 as missionaries in the Philippines with the New Tribes Mission. But then on May 27, 2001, the world of these two dedicated American Christians came crashing down, when the couple were among a larger group kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, a notorious Islamist separatist and terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. While most of the group was freed after ransoms were paid and several were beheaded, the Burnham's were in captivity for a year and a few days. Then, during the eventual rescue attempt by the Philippine Army on June 7, 2002, Martin was killed by three gunshots in the chest and Gracia was wounded in her leg. Since her release and the death of her husband, Gracia Burnham has returned to the United States with their three children. She has written two books about her experiences, "In the Presence of my Enemies" (2003) and "To Fly Again" (2005). The Burnham's capture and captivity were the subject of a July 2008 episode of the TV series, Locked Up Abroad. She has also set up the Martin and Gracia Burnham Foundation, and one of its focus areas is "ministries to Muslims." In an extraordinary interview recently at NRB 2011 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, for my Front Page Radio program, which will be broadcast on KWVE 107.9 FM in Southern California, (www.kwve.com), on Sunday, March 13, 2011, this extraordinary woman recounted her incredible story. She also revealed how she has been able to forgive their captors and is now sharing the Gospel with the terrorists in their prison cells in Manila. Gracia told me, "God in his goodness has shown me why we went through that year. Recently I have been able to find twenty-three of the guys who held us hostage. They're in jail in Manila in a maximum security prison for the rest of their lives. "Our foundation has begun working with them and doing projects for them to show them the love of Christ and having materials printed into their dialects. They're reading the scriptures in their own languages and some of them are going to Bible studies. So far three of them have come to know the Lord Jesus as their savior. "I think that God out of His goodness is just letting me see how maybe he used our captivity to do something in the lives of some men who otherwise would never have had access or would never have heard the gospel and I just can't help but believe that it's not over till it's over and God's going to keep doing it." When I asked her if she had been able to meet these men that caused them so much pain, she replied, "I haven't met them yet but I correspond with them and I get letters back from them. They asked me to come a year ago and I didn't have peace about visiting the jail at that time, but Martin's parents, who were missionaries in the Philippines, went and visited the jail for two days in a row and talked with those men who held their son captive and had the best time. So, someday I'm going to meet those men. Someday my children are going to walk into that prison and put their arms around these men and pray for them." I then pointed out to Gracia that she and Martin had been pictured looking gaunt and ill in just about every newspaper in the world during their captivity, and told her that she now looked radiant, despite still having shrapnel in her left leg and having endured the nightmare of seeing her husband die in such terrible circumstances. She then told me that shortly after their marriage they went into missionary training with New Tribes Mission. "We did a year of what they used to call 'boot camp', though they don't call it that anymore," said Gracia. "We would learn to live in spartan conditions and then, for six weeks, we had to live out in the woods at a kind of jungle camp with whatever we took out there with us. "We built our own house and we were getting ready for our new work in the Philippines and, of course, Martin had specific pilot training. He had to learn to fly into little short strips built up the side of a mountain because that's what he was going to face overseas. So we had good extensive training. As soon as we were done with that training, we left for the Philippines." It didn't take them long to settle into their new and demanding life. Was it dangerous? "Well we soon found out that there were communist guerillas up in the mountains, but we felt very safe and we always avoided hot spots. We were never careless," she said. "We were in a small town because our job was to keep the tribal missionaries, who lived out in the jungle areas where there were no roads, supplied. We had a good market there and so we built up a little grocery store for the missionaries. Martin also did medical evacuations. "I was the radio operator and I would talk to the people in the tribal villages and take their grocery orders and their medicine orders and then Martin would box them up and fly them in. So that was our job. We were the suppliers. "We had snakes and rats and little lizards crawling along the walls, but that's what you get when you live overseas in the tropics." Gracia said that she also had three children born in the Philippines adding, "I had the three of them just right in a row." So it seemed that their lives were quite idyllic, but then one day it all fell apart. So I asked Gracia to describe what happened. "Martin needed to go to work on a small island in the Southern Philippines to fill in for a missionary pilot there," she said. "He had just been on an overseas trip and was jet lagged so he needed to rest." She said they had decided to let Martin get some rest and also celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary at the Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island on May 27, 2001. "We were only going to be there for twenty-four hours and we went to bed that first night and the next morning there was pounding on the door and Martin got up and even before he got to the door, these three guys with M-16 automatic weapons broke the door in. One of them took Martin out, while another came over to my bed and lowered his weapon at me and yelled, 'Go, go, go'. So I followed and they were taking us down to a waiting speed boat down at the docks." Gracia said the children were not with them as they had left them with co-workers. So did you suddenly realize this was bad? "Yes, when they raised their weapons in the air and yelled 'Allah Akbar' (God is great), that's when we knew it was the Abu Sayyaf. These are a group who are militant Muslims who have declared jihad in that area of the world, only their jihad has degenerated into kidnapping people for a ransom. So at that moment we both knew that we were in big trouble. There were 20 hostages taken that day. "We were the only missionaries. There were three Americans -- Martin and I and a businessman from California called Guillermo Sobero of Corona, California. They didn't target us because we were missionaries and were disappointed to find out that we were Americans as Americans don't play the ransom game very well and also missionaries don't have any money. They were hoping for European business men because they knew that they could get money from them." So the captives were put on a speed boat and, after three days over the ocean, they finished up in a remote Muslim stronghold where they knew the trails and places where they could get food and supplies. Gracia went on to say, "So for the next year, we were running for our lives and sleeping on the jungle floor and drinking dirty river water and starving and witnessing the atrocities that these guys committed against villages as we would go through." What kind of atrocities? "To gain control, they would often go through a village and would separate a few guys off to the side and chop their heads off. I didn't see that, but I heard the yells and the scuffles. These were not honorable men. The name of Abu Sayyaf brings terror to the hearts of the Filipinos." Gracia revealed that they never settled in one place, adding, "We were always moving because the Philippine military were coming after us to try and rescue us but they didn't really know much about hostage rescue as when they found us, they would just shoot up the camp Rambo style and we would have dead and wounded and we still knew that one of these days those bullets were going to find us and we weren't going to survive the gun battles." Did you know at the time how much publicity was going out on this situation? "We had no idea," said Gracia. "Of course we knew that New Tribes Mission and our families were praying for us but we didn't know that all over the world, people were starting to pray for us. I later found out that Christian radio and other broadcasters kept the public aware of our kidnapping and just kept our names out there and that these people began praying for Martin and Gracia. What would we have done without the prayers of God's people?" So how long did this go on for? "We were held hostage for a little over a year and ten days," she said. "We got sick and suffered from dysentery and diarrhea and we were dirty all the time. There were no clean clothes to change into. We started feeling more like animals than human beings. And often we felt forsaken -- God forsaken -- and I used to tell Martin, 'Everyone's forgotten us as this had has gone on for so long.' Of course, we knew that wasn't true. "I had a few crises of faith and I remember that week ten was very difficult for me. I'd given God about six weeks to get us out of there and He didn't come through and I think week ten I really had it out with God. I decided He didn't love me because if He loved me He would answer our prayer and we would be out of there right? But here we were, stuck in a bad situation and Martin saw the depression and the horrible time I was having and he said, 'Gracia, it's so sad to see you giving up your faith.' I said, 'Oh, I'm not giving up my faith. I still believe Christ died for our sins God made the world, but I just don't think God loves me because He's not coming through for me. "And Martin said, "Seems to me that you either believe it all, or you don't believe it at all. You need to choose what you're going to believe. And I decided to believe that what God's Word said was true. So I just grabbed onto verses like John 3:16 that I knew to be true and claimed them as my own even though I wasn't feeling like God was for us and not against us." Gracia then said, "The conditions were awful, with a year of not sleeping well. We could never get comfortable on the jungle floor. We always knew that the military was nearby and there was always an uneasiness which meant that never once were we able to relax. So the weariness wasn't just physical, it was mentally and also morale-wise." How were the other hostages coping with the situation? "The other hostages were truly heroic, but one by one they were ransomed and they would let them go," she said. "A few of them escaped and the other American, I'm sad to say, about a week into our captivity was beheaded. They got angry with him and so until the end, it was me and Martin and a Philippine nurse for the last like five months of our captivity. It was just us three and we just tried to encourage each other as best we could." Gracia then shared about how one day they had obtained a radio from one of the terrorists and were "dialing around trying to find some English speaking programs" when what she considered a miracle occurred. "We found a Christian radio station out of Alaska and tuned in right as a pastor was talking about how Christ sits at the right-hand of God making intercession for us," she said. "He said, 'If you could hear Jesus in the next room praying for you right now you would not be afraid of anything.' And then he prayed for people in war-torn areas and people who were being oppressed because of their faith and we looked at each other and said that this man was talking to us and praying for us and it was the first spiritual input that we'd had in a year and God just sent us that message at the lowest point of our captivity. I'm just so thankful to him for His goodness." Did you ever find out who he was? "Yes I've met the man. His name was Andy Baker and he's from here in Nashville and I've gotten to spend a little bit of time with him on a few occasions," she said. "I think he couldn't believe it when I made a statement at Martin's funeral on national TV and I talked about KNLS out of Alaska and mentioned his name. A friend called him up who knew him and we were able to get together not so long after that." How long after you got the radio did it all fall apart? "A few days later," said Gracia. "The Abu Sayyaf had been told that ransom was waiting for them in a village and we couldn't find the place because it didn't exist and we were wandering around lost. What we didn't know was that a homing device had been sewn into a backpack that had come in so the Philippine military were able to tell where we were and they were closing in on us. "That last day it clouded up to rain and always before we were safe in the rain it was like an unwritten rule you never fought in the rain. But that day we stopped to wait out the rain and the military didn't stop. They came over the hill and, as usual, they just opened fire on us and all of us hostages were shot. I was shot in the leg and Martin was shot in the chest, while the nurse was shot in the neck. "Martin just lay there during the gun battle and all of a sudden he got very heavy. Have you heard that term 'the weight of death?' Well, I think that's what I felt. Then as the Abu Sayyaf retreated down the river and the soldiers came over the hill I began to move my hands around so they would know that I was alive and they dragged me to the top of the hill and I looked back at Martin and he was white. That's when I knew he was dead. And, in that moment, God gave me a peace that I cannot explain because this is not how I would have written the end of our story. It's not what we were praying for, But God just gave me a peace that this was His plan and that the same God that had kept us going for over a year in the jungle did not lose control that day and I still hang onto that." Gracia went on to say that, by that time, she had worked out the issues she had regarding her anger with God, thinking he didn't love her and also wrestling with the sovereignty of God in her life. "I had settled those issues in the jungle," she told me. "For a year, I learned those lessons and when Martin lay there dying there was no questioning God. I knew that this was God's plan. I knew that He was going to take care of me. I knew that He had answered our prayers. We were begging God to let one of us at least go home and raise our children. We did not want them to be orphans and God did it. He let me raise the children and you know the children love God. One of my boys is doing what his daddy did. He's flying in Botswana, Africa, for a mission organization." And what about her leg wound? How bad was it? "Well, not bad enough to kill me though I do have a huge scar. They air lifted me in a helicopter out to a sort of US army field unit that they had set up and they did the surgery right there out in the field. They were able to pull part of the bullet out but I have a lot of shrapnel in my leg, but they fixed me up well and they just cared for me so well and everyone has been so kind to me. "This has just opened huge doors for me to speak to tell my story and also to talk with victims of crime. So I take my opportunities and if somebody wants an interview I give it because, who knows, what path someone might be going down today. Paths that they never would have chosen if they were choosing hardships that they don't feel adequate to bear and you can encourage them that God is enough; that God is leading and directing you. You just follow Him and he'll make everything that happens to you work together for good and for his glory and that's what we want." I concluded this extraordinary interview with this extraordinary woman by asking if had been able to say goodbye to Martin before he died. "I said goodbye to Martin several times during our captivity," she said. "One day we were being shelled by artillery they were shooting from ten miles away and artillery was landing all around us and I told Martin, 'I need to say goodbye to you. I want to say everything I want to say now before it's too late." What did you say? "I said, 'I'm glad I married you. I'm glad we had a good marriage. I'm glad we came to the Philippines. I would never choose to have not done what we did. Thank you for being a good husband. I'm so glad God gave us the children he gave us.' I was able to say all those things. "So when Martin lay there dying, I could do what he had taught me to do in a gun battle. He told me to lay flat on the ground and 'don't move until someone tells you what to do.' He had also told me to make myself the smallest target 'you can possibly make.' I was trying to look dead. I thought the worst thing that could happen now is they [the terrorists] could drag me off into the jungle and the nightmare would continue. So I was able in that moment to keep my head on straight. I'd already said goodbye to Martin. I didn't even know he was dying at that moment as I'd never watched a person die." http://www.dohi.org/us/proddetail.php?prod=030311_1 |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:21 am Post #4 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Philippine Rebels Escape, Headless Bodies Found 22/03/2001 | Reuters LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels, using child hostages as human shields, broke through a military cordon around a hospital in the southern Philippines on Sunday and escaped with American and Filipino captives, officials said. But just hours later, fighting had resumed in hills two miles away. Nearby, troops found the headless bodies of two Filipino hostages, apparently killed by the rebels some days ago, military officials said. Five Filipinos, from among 20 people kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf rebels seven days ago from an island resort, escaped during the overnight confusion as the bandits slipped out of a hospital and a church that they had seized on Basilan island. Four other captives had escaped during the fighting in Lamitan town, on Basilan's northern coast, on Saturday. Troops found the headless bodies of two Filipino men in the jungles near Lamitan and officials said the victims were among the initial 20 hostages. Local television named one as a security guard at the Dos Palmas island resort and said the other had not been identified. ``Both of them were headless,'' Basilan governor Wahab Akbar told Reuters. ``The bodies were decomposed.'' Officials suspect the two men were killed before the rebels swarmed into Lamitan early on Saturday. The guerrillas were holed up there for over 24 hours before shooting their way through a military cordon, dragging along with them the remainder of the Dos Palmas hostages and several other captives, including nurses. ``They covered their escape with a heavy volume of fire and then used children and other hostages as human shields,'' Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan told reporters in Manila. ``Our troops withheld their fire ...(even if) they saw rebels moving because some of the hostages might be hit,'' Adan said, explaining how they were able to get through the military cordon. The military said at least 16 soldiers have been killed since fighting began in the hills outside Lamitan on Friday. Several civilians and rebels have also died, but there were no confirmed numbers. One army captain was killed in the rebels' escape near the hospital compound, when a rocket fired from a rebel launcher blasted his armored car. ARROYO TAKES TOUGH LINE President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites), who has taken a tough line on the kidnappings, vowed there would be no let-up in the military operation and repeated that no ransoms would be paid. ``We will negotiate only for the unconditional release of the hostages... The purpose is to convince them (the rebels) that this is the best thing they can do because the alternative for them is worse,'' she told Manila radio dzRH. The sight of a hospital building and a church with glass windows shattered and walls peppered with bullets greeted armed forces chief General Diomedio Villanueva when he visited Lamitan after the rebels had left. Roads outside the compound were pockmarked with craters, caused either by rockets fired by air force helicopters or by the rebels. The bodies of two soldiers and an altar boy lay near the church. Residents said they saw the guerrillas slipping out of the hospital compound after they had set fire to four nearby houses to divert military attention. A power outage had plunged the town into darkness. ``We were separated from the other hostages when the rebels were making their getaway,'' Janice Go, one of the five who escaped, told RMN radio. ``They took the Americans with them.'' PLEAS FROM HOSTAGES Another escapee, Teresa Ganzon, appealed to the military to stop firing while the rebels were still holding hostages. Arroyo, an admirer of Britain's ``Iron Lady'' Margaret Thatcher, dismisses the rebels as a bandit gang and has vowed to crush them, offering them a choice between death and surrender. The Abu Sayyaf is one of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country but its main pursuit appears to be kidnap for ransom. Adan said six soldiers were killed in fighting around the hospital, raising military casualties in the rescue operation to 16 dead with more than 35 wounded. ``We have had no sightings of the Americans so far,'' he said. Some of the hostages taken from the hospital included nurses, staff and ``some patients,'' Adan said. The three Americans, who were among the 20 tourists and resort workers taken from an island resort near Palawan. They include a missionary couple and a tourist. Two priests caught inside the church during the rebel attack escaped. ``I was able to run away... I leapt over the wall and hid,'' Father Cirilo Nacorda said. ``The ideology of a paradise is difficult to fight,'' Akbar said, commenting on the rebels' escape. The governor was referring to a rebel belief that to die for Islam brings a place in paradise. http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=articles&id=641 |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:27 am Post #5 |
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CHRONOLOGY June 1, 2001, Reuters, 10:40 AM, Philippine military confirms gunfight with rebels, June 2, 2001, AFP, 6:39 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 people hostage: report, June 2, 2001, AP, 7:36 AM, Philippines Army, Kidnappers Clash, by Jim Gomez, June 2, 2001, AP, 8:35 AM, Military-Kidnapper Clashes Continue, by Jim Gomez, June 2, 2001, AFP, 9:18 AM, Philippine troops recover hostage from resort, June 2, 2001, Reuters, 10:15 AM, Philippine military reported to have found one hostage, June 2, 2001, AFP, 10:31 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 hostage in southern Philippines, fighting rages, June 2, 2001, AFP, 10:56 AM, Philippine hostage escaped just before execution threat, June 2, 2001, AFP, 11:38 AM, Three American hostages in hospital occupied by Abu Sayyaf, June 2, 2001, AFP, 11:59 AM, Three Philippine hostages escape during fighting, June 2, 2001, Reuters, 12:24 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape during fighting, June 2, 2001, AFP, 1:01 PM, Fighting mounts in Philippine town as Muslim rebels take more hostages, June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:45 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape from guerrillas' grip, by Erik de Castro, June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:04 PM, Negotiations taking place to end mass kidnap stand off: military, June 2, 2001, AP, 4:58 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez, June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:58 PM, Negotiations underway to end mass kidnap stand off: military, June 2, 2001, AP, 5:17 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnappers, June 2, 2001, AFP, 5:47 PM, Chronology of Philippines hostage crisis, June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:26 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped Erik de Castro June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:59 PM, Abu Sayyaf mounts counter attack on security forces, June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:30 PM, Six Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, http://stevenwarranresearch.blogspot.com/2012/09/june-2-2001-lamitan.html Saturday June 2, 6:39 AM Abu Sayyaf take 200 people hostage: report (AFP) 6:39 AM ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - The Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerilla group claimed over local radio Saturday they had taken over a church and hospital on Basilan island in the southern Philippines and were holding 200 people hostage. "We are part of the Abu Sayyaf suicide squad. We are now in control of a church and hospital here with around 200 hostages," a spokesman for the notorious kidnapping group told Radio Mindanao Network, based in the southern city of Zamboanga. http://web.archive.org/web/20010606011023/http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010601/1/r1l3.html SNIPERS TAKEN OUT Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital. Machinegun bursts from armoured troop carriers peppered rebel positions. But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels. "The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid. "We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely." Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day. Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed. "One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. "I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright." Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered. Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers. Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said. Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses. Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets. A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back. "We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages." http://stevenwarranresearch.blogspot.com/2012/09/june-2-2001-lamitan.html |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:29 am Post #6 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Lamitan: A personal account By Romeo B. Dominguez , Lieutenant General AFP Northern Luzon Command (Lt. Gen. Dominguez was the commander of the Joint Task Force Comet which was created by the AFP Southern Command on April 3, 2001 against Abu Sayyaf terrorists. On May 27, however, the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped guests of the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan and brought their hostages to Lamitan, Basilan, which was under Dominguez’s jurisdiction. This is the general’s view on the issue and the revived controversy. –Editor) A key to a better understanding of the Lamitan incident is the fact that there were two hospitals in the area. One was the Torres Memorial Hospital, which was inside the town church compound taken over by the Abu Sayaff. The other was the Emergency District Hospital, a kilometer away. Most of the “action” happened at Torres but my visit to the District Hospital from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. of June 2, 2001 was the center of the media attacks against me. There have been two congressional hearings focused on three incredible accusations. But both panels confirmed the conclusion of the Army Inspector General that there was no collusion or payment of ransom. Witnesses claimed that the ASG and their hostages were allowed to escape through the Torres hospital’s back door around 5:30 p.m. But it was a judgment call by the company commander. The soldiers were not able to stop the escape because the Abu Sayaff used the hostages as shields. Their escape was not a “walk in the park,” as claimed by former hostage Gracia Burnham. A female hostage was wounded and the ASG was forced to leave her and her husband behind. The husband claimed he negotiated ransom for a relative but this happened without the knowledge of the AFP. Second, one female witness claimed that ransom was paid for the release of a hostage but her assertions were later disproved. The witness claimed that my aide carried a black briefcase full of money at the District Hospital. The witness claimed my aide stayed outside the office of the head doctor with whom I was meeting. If indeed there was a briefcase and it contained money, would I have not kept my aide within my sight all the time? Also inconsistent with fact was the witness’s testimony that I left the hospital at around 11 a.m. to fetch the hostages for whom the ransom was supposedly paid. In fact, troops recovered the hostages before 10 a.m. and I left two hours later. The latest assertion was that the ransom I supposedly carried was a payoff for the ASG’s escape. If that were true, it would be unthinkable for the money to be carried around so casually. Besides, P25 million in cash cannot fit inside an attache case. The witness also claimed that Col. Jovenal Narcise, commander of the 103 rd Brigade, waited for me when I was the one waiting for him. The witness was specific in describing the events, but it turned out that she had difficulty seeing due to diabetes. She was certain about the briefcase but she could not identify my aide who was sat beside her. Her motive was never established because she was never cross-examined. The third issue was that I was supposed to have been responsible for not redeploying the 18th IB from Tuburan. But the decision was reached, after a heated discussion among myself, then AFP chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and then Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, because there was a continuing battle in Tuburan and there were reports of rebel reinforcement. Looking back, the Lamitan clash showed the commitment of our soldiers. Despite difficulties, the troops rescued 21 of the 30 hostages within 24 hours. It was unfortunate that the line between fact and fiction was blurred by the media slant on the event and the sensationalized and biased reporting. Charges of the alleged duplicity of government forces fighting the bandits are insulting, malicious and unfair. While there were lapses, these were magnified and linked to imagined collusion and used to fan the discontent of an exasperated public. Your soldiers make mistakes, but they will not accept blood money. I believe I did my best to provide leadership at that time. Despite that, I suffered the ignominy of perceived failure. My actions were portrayed in the worst possible light and presented to the public in an extended trial by publicity that was applauded by fence-sitters who hated the military. Fr. Cirilo Nacorda admitted that he never had any evidence. Two senior legislators, in fact, noted that the 21 witnesses Fr. Nacorda brought bore affidavits in English when most of them spoke only Filipino and their dialect. And the two “witnesses” who testified contradicted their written testimonies. Interestingly, the media focused on the theory of collusion although eight of the 12 senators in the probe panel disagreed. In contrast, media ignored the House panel’s unanimous report that there was no collusion. Both panels zeroed in on the Chief of Staff’s order to continue its contact with the enemy in Tuburan (which is sound, per se) and an Army captian’s irrational order to redeploy his men. Just the same, I was made responsible for the two actions. But it has already been established that there was no evidence of collision or payment of ransom. I can only hope that that conclusion closes this chapter in my career because I have to move on. And the Lamitan case has to move on as well. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/06/yehey/opinion/20040806opi5.html Edited by Flipzi, Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:30 am.
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:33 am Post #7 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Abu Sayyaf-army nexus to be probed The Philippine military will conduct its own probe into allegations that certain Army officials are protecting the Abu Sayyaf as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once more vowed to crush the extremist group and rescue its remaining hostages in southern Basilan province. By Gilbert Felongco August 10, 2001 The Philippine military will conduct its own probe into allegations that certain Army officials are protecting the Abu Sayyaf as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once more vowed to crush the extremist group and rescue its remaining hostages in southern Basilan province. Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, said in a television interview they would consider evidence by Catholic priest Cirilo Nacorda, a former Abu Sayyaf hostage who narrowly escaped being abducted for the second time when the group raided Basilan's Lamitan town last June 2. Earlier, Nacorda had accused several ranking Army officials, including former 1st Infantry Division commander Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, of conniving with the Abu Sayyaf when the group was able to escape from a military security cordon in Lamitan. Nacorda accused Dominguez and four other key Army commanders in Basilan of receiving money from the Abu Sayyaf to allow them to escape. During their retreat from Lamitan, the Abu Sayyaf took with them more hostages in addition to the 20 they abducted last May 27 from a resort in western Palawan island. Five of the Palawan hostages, however, were also able to escape in Lamitan. The guerrillas had recently beheaded nine of their hostages apart from American Guillermo Sobero, one of the Palawan hostages whom they claim to have decapitated last June 12. Two other U.S. citizens, Martin and Gracie Burnham, are still with the Abu Sayyaf. Apart from Dominguez, Nacorda identified former 103rd Army Brigade commander Col. Jovenal Narcise, Capt. Hubert Acierto, Capt. Nicolas Quemado, and Maj. Eliseo Campued of the 18th Infantry Battalion as involved in the payoff. Both Dominguez and Narcise have been reassigned to new posts following the Lamitan debacle. Dominguez had denied Nacorda's claim saying the priest had been hallucinating too much because of his ordeal with the Abu Sayyaf. He threatened to file a libel suit against him. Arroyo yesterday said the Philippine authorities would soon rescue all the Abu Sayyaf hostages and put an end to the 'atrocities' committed by the group once and for all. The statement was the fourth time Arroyo had vowed to crush the extremist group since May, when the hostage situation started. "It's only a matter of time before we finally rescue the rest of the hostages and rout this barbaric horde and put it behind us," the President said in a roundtable interview with Malaysian journalists before she left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Davao City, in the southern Philippines. The President repeated that she had ruled out negotiations for ransom. She said she had ordered the Philippine military and the police to post a contingent on every island, especially in Mindanao, to protect tourists and locals from the bandit group. "This may be a police contingent, a military contingent or we may accredit the security agencies of the local resorts. Let's say, accredit them as territorial forces of the Armed Forces (of the Philippines)," the President said. What was important, the President said, was to stop giving in to the Abu Sayyaf's ransom demands. "Face the issue once and for all. Bite the bullet once and for all. And then put it behind us rather than pay ransom and then have a sort of Damocles sword the next time, next season, next year," she said. The President at the end of her three-day state visit thanked Malaysian leaders for supporting her decision "not to pay ransom but rather to bite the bullet once and for all." "The Philippines and Malaysia are truly partners for peace and development," she said. At the same time, Arroyo ordered the release of P1 billion ($18.8 million) to the Department of National Defence for the training of 10,000 who will be deployed to help restore law and order in Basilan. The Cabinet Oversight Committee earlier decided to raise more Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) militiamen, in Basilan to prevent further kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf. http://m.gulfnews.com/abu-sayyaf-army-nexus-to-be-probed-1.422779 |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:35 am Post #8 |
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R.A.T.S.
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House Hearing on AFP-Abu connivance elicits more questions than answers BY CARLOS H. CONDE Bulatlat.com As the House committee on national defense wound down its second day of public hearing last Friday in Isabela, Basilan, on the alleged connivance of the Abu Sayyaf and the military, it was apparent that more questions rather than answers came up. Basilan Rep. Gerry Salapuddin declared exactly that observation and urged the committee to investigate further. Friday’s public hearing in Isabela City, the capital of Basilan which can be reached from Zamboanga via a 30-minute ferry ride, featured the side of the military officials accused by Fr. Cirilo Nacorda of having connived with the Abu Sayyaf during the latter’s siege of Lamitan last June 2. The connivance, Fr. Nacordsa has alleged, paved the way for the “escape” of the Abu Sayyaf members who occupied a diocesan compound in Lamitan on that day. Lamitan is 40 minutes by land from Isabela City; Fr. Nacorda is the town’s parish priest. The military officials questioned by the committee for almost five hours gave long rebuttals to Fr. Nacorda’s allegation. Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, the commanding officer of group tasked to go after the bandits and whom Fr. Nacorda accused of distributing ransom money in the town’s district hospital, was more emphatic on Fr. Nacorda’s lack of personal knowledge about the alleged bribery than on his denial. Fr. Nacorda, he told the committee, "has no personal knowledge of the malicious accusations he has hurled against me. He was one kilometer away hiding in his church. There are no witnesses who can collaborate his accusations." In an emotional statement, Dominguez even hinted that it was Fr. Nacorda who was in cahoots with the Abu Sayyaf, using as an argument the fact that, while Fr. Rhoel Gallardo was brutally killed by the bandits in captivity last year, Fr. Nacorda, who was kidnapped in 1994, was released unharmed. (Surprisingly, not one member of the committee challenged Dominguez’s insinuation, if only to question the logic, or lack of it, behind it.) Colonel Jovenal Narcise, the commanding officer of the 103rd Brigade in Basilan at the time, also denied Fr. Nacorda’s allegations and his account of what had transpired. But despite the officials’ testimonies and the repeated, sometimes heated, questions coming from the congressmen, this question was never answered: Why did the troops pull out from around the diocesan compound that housed, among others, the St. Peter’s Church and the Jose Ma. Torres Hospital? This question is crucial because the pullout at around 4:30 p.m. on June 2 preceded the Abu Sayyaf’s “escape” an hour and a half later. By pulling out, the soldiers practically cleared the way for the Abu Sayyaf to leave the place along with their hostages. Dominguez, Narcise and Capt. Ruben Ginulbay, the commanding officer of the Scout Rangers class that was earlier ambushed and nearly decimated by the Abu Sayyaf, had affirmed in Friday’s hearing that there was no order to pull out. Narcise later said that only the platoon leaders were called to a briefing. What they could not categorically answer, however, was whether the troops, in fact, pulled out. Repeated direct questions by the congressmen – “Did the troops pull out or not?” – elicited a non-answer from Dominguez, Narcise and Ginulbay: “There was no order to pull out.” Surprisingly, no one among the congressmen pointed out that, at that point in the questioning, the congressmen were not asking anymore if there was any order to pull out– they were asking if there was, in fact, a pullout. According to the witnesses who submitted their affidavits and who testified to the committee during an executive session in Lamitan the day before the Isabela hearings, they saw the troops pull out of the perimeter of the compound. This is the reason why only the militiamen confronted the Abu Sayyaf as they moved out of the hospital through a small iron gate at the back of the compound. The witnesses, some of whom talked to this reporter last week, reiterated that they saw the Abu Sayyaf in single file and that they were walking casually, not on alert, along Veterans Drive directly behind the hospital toward the residential area at the back of the compound. This suggests that the bandits were certain no one would accost them outside. Eligio Cordero, a 50-year-old carpenter whose house is along Veteran’s Drive, told me that the bandits left “normally,” their guns slung on their shoulders “but not on alert.” He said he was about seven to 10 meters away from the bandits as they made their “escape.” Bukidnon Rep. Nerius Acosta was visibly intrigued last Friday when he confronted Ginulbay. If, as Ginulbay said, there was no order to pull out, that means the troops were still around and could have confronted the bandits. That, of course, did not happen. “Why?” Acosta asked. Ginulbay could only smile faintly. At the end of the hearing last Friday, not one of the AFP’s officers and men under question answered the one nagging question that hung over their head the whole time: Where were the troops when the Abu Sayyaf literally walked away? Aside from that question, there are others that, if taken together, could imply connivance or, in the words of Dr. Daniel Cawley, the medical director of the Jose Ma. Torres Hospital, “at the very least gross incompetence on the part of the military.” (On Friday, Dominguez said they did not determine any lapses in their response to the siege.) First, Lamitan town is generally an AFP-controlled area. There are checkpoints in every strategic point in the town. At around midnight of June 2, the fully armed bandits arrived in three jeepneys. Why were they not detected? Considering that, as Dominguez had testified too, there had been Abu Sayyaf sightings in nearby towns even a day earlier, it is reasonable to assume that the Army in Lamitan, which had a tactical post in Campo Uno, was in full alert. So why did the bandits waltz in that easily? Second, the two 6x6 trucks that fetched Ginulbay’s troops from the wharf were ambushed. Because the trucks were on a mission, it is reasonable to believe that Campo Uno expected these to be back at around 2 a.m. the latest from the wharf. But because the trucks were ambushed, they did not reach their destination. The question is, How come Narcise only learned of the ambush at 5 in the morning and how come the reinforcements to Ginulbay’s troops arrived only after 6 a.m.? Didn’t Campo Uno wonder what happened to the trucks and Ginulbay’s troops and should have promptly checked? Third, why wasn’t Ginulbay’s Scout Rangers, who had by then been badly decimated due to the ambush and who were dangerously ill-equipped, not relieved from their post around the compound? This doesn’t make sense because, as Ginulbay himself admitted, it was the first time he and his Luzon-based troops sat foot on Lamitan, ergo they are not familiar with the terrain. If the intention was to adequately handle the Abu Sayyaf inside the compound, why did the Army not assign somebody familiar with the terrain and the situation? Fourth, how could Dos Palmas hostages Reghis Romero and two other victims have escaped from a compound surrounded by high concrete walls and filled with around 50 bandits? Fifth, why did the military assault the compound at around 1 a.m. of June 3, when the bandits had already left the compound eight hours earlier? Sixth, why were some of the houses outside the compound burned to the ground? Residents said the burning occurred after the bandits had left. The military blamed the burning on the Abu Sayyaf and later said that the bandits had planned to sack and burn the whole town. These are just some of the questions confronting the House committee on national defense. Unless its members come up with satisfactory answers from the military, the suspicion that soldiers and officials connived with the bandits will not disappear. Bulatlat.com http://www.bulatlat.com/archive1/028basilan.html |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:37 am Post #9 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Dominguez on military trial: A non-event By Ricky Bautista | Updated August 19, 2002 - 12:00am CATBALOGAN, Samar - The commander of the Army's 8th Infantry Division dismissed yesterday as a "non-event" his possible court-martial together with two other officers for their role in the escape of Abu Sayyaf terrorists from La-mitan, Basilan in June last year. "A court-martial is a very good venue because in a (Senate) hearing, your lawyers cannot cross-examine those accusing you but in a court-martial, they can," Maj. Gen. Romeo Dominguez said. Dominguez made the remark after Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, chairman of the Senate defense committee, said his panel has finished the draft of a report recommending the court-martial of Dominguez, Col. Juvenal Narcise and Maj. Eliseo Campued. But Dominguez noted that the Senate report has not even been approved yet by the committee. He expressed confidence that he and the two other officers would be acquitted in a court-martial. The three officers were in command of troops that failed to capture a band of Abu Sayyaf terrorists, along with their 20 hostages, who escaped from a church-hospital compound in Lamitan, Basilan on June 2 last year although the kidnappers had been surrounded. Lamitan residents, led by parish priest Rev. Cirilo Nacorda, charged that the military officers colluded with the Abu Sayyaf in exchange for a part of the ransom money that some hostages paid for their release. But the three officers maintained their innocence and said the Lamitan fiasco was mainly due to the delay in the arrival of reinforcements and the terrorists use of the hostages as human shields. Dominguez said he was eager to appear before a court martial to prove his innocence and contest the findings of the Senate report that was supposedly based on four public hearings, three executive sessions and two ocular inspections where some 50 witnesses testified and some 1,500 documents were gathered. "If they tell me to appear, I will appear. I don't have any qualms on that. I have nothing to hide and have never betrayed my oath as an officer," Dominguez said. He also said he held no rancor for the Senate committee because they were only doing their job as elected officials, but lamented the length of the process. "It's too repetitious. If they cannot find a hole in this process, they will use another process just to find holes," he said, stressing that even the Senate committee has not fully approved the draft report although it was already released to the media. He expressed confidence, however, that lawmakers would likely uphold his innocence as has already been indicated when the bicameral Commission on Appointments confirmed his promotion to major general and the military high command assigned him to a vital position as Eastern Visayas military chief. "I no longer think about promotions. Ill be retiring in October 2005 and I'll leave the service sincere. What we should think about now is what we can do and what we can contribute," he added. http://www.philstar.com/headlines/172604/dominguez-military-trial-non-event |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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| Flipzi | Wed Jun 4, 2014 12:38 am Post #10 |
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R.A.T.S.
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Media, Politicians Distorted Collusion August 2 , 2004 Philippine Daily Inquirer CAMP AQUINO, TARLAC, (STAR) By Benjie Villa - Mass media and some politicians "blurred the line between fact and fiction" when they insisted that military officials colluded with Islamists in extorting money from hostages, said the commander of a military task force that ran after the Abu Sayyaf in 2001. Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, now chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) based here, also said the media had downplayed the accomplishment of soldiers during the siege of Lamitan in Basilan in June 2001. "The monster was a creation of mediamen who failed to validate their source of information," he said. Meanwhile, Malacañang has accepted the stand of government prosecutors on American missionary Gracia Burnham’s testimony that she was not aware of any collusion between the Armed Forces and the Abu Sayyaf. Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye Jr. said they have to "go by the declaration of the DOJ (Department of Justice) prosecutors that she (Burnham) did not make any statements about the alleged collusion." Dominguez said the media had "practically ignored" the fact that troops were able to recover 21 of the 30 hostages from fleeing Abu Sayyaf bandits. He added that the "small lapses" of military commanders at the lowest levels "were magnified and linked to imagined collusion to feed the discontent of an exasperated public." "Yet we in the military would have wanted nothing better than to end the people’s grief by destroying the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers holed up in that (hospital) compound in Lamitan," he said. "Your soldiers make mistakes. But under no circumstances will they accept blood money," he added. Dominguez described as "non-existent" the P25-million ransom that he was supposed to have received from the Abu Sayyaf at the height of the Lamitan hostage crisis. "If indeed there was a briefcase and it contained lots of money, would I have not kept my aide within my sight all the time?" he asked. "It was impossible to fit the amount inside an attaché case, much more to be carried by only one person. It would be unthinkable for the money to be carried around so casually, let alone shown for everyone to see," Dominguez said. In recalling the hostage drama, Dominguez said that the "key" to a better understanding of the Lamitan incident is the knowledge that there were actually two hospitals in the town –Torres Hospital and Lamitan’s emergency district hospital. Dominguez described Torres Hospital as a "church-cum-hospital," where the Abu Sayyaf bandits were holed up with the 30 hostages they seized from a posh resort in Palawan and during the week in transit. On the other hand, Lamitan’s emergency district hospital was the base of operations of the troops laying siege to Torres Hospital, he added. Dominguez said of the 2,000 troops involved in the siege, only half could be maneuvered since the others were assigned to man "rear areas" from possible terrorist reinforcements. "It was a non-conventional situation," he said. "Front-line troops had to be distributed to several battle areas. Civilian residents limited the potentials of indirect fires. "(As commander), my battle site was limited only to what my eyes can see. We had no satellite, radar or sensors to aid us," he said. A woman presented as witness by Lamitan parish priest Fr. Cirilo Nacorda said she saw Dominguez arrive with an aide purportedly carrying a "black briefcase" supposedly containing ransom money at the time troops had laid siege to the Lamitan District Hospital to smoke out an Abu Sayyaf band. The witness said Dominguez’s aide stayed outside the chief doctor’s office, where the general had reportedly proceeded. Dominguez was purportedly waiting for Col. Jovenal Narcise, who was then commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, the witness added. On June 2, 2001 the Abu Sayyaf escaped from Lamitan using their hostages as human shields against troops encircling the Torres Hospital. Up to now, Dominguez insists that there was no order for troops to withdraw. According to government prosecutors, the testimony of Burnham at the closed-door hearing at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig last Thursday gave no indication that she knew anything about the alleged collusion between the military and the bandits. But Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. challenged that claim of government prosecutors and maintained that Burnham’s testimony contradicted what she had written in her book, "In the Presence of My Enemies." Pimentel said that Burnham could not say anything about the alleged ransom-sharing since it was deemed immaterial to the case. For his part, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay called yesterday for a public disclosure of the transcripts of Burnham’s testimony supposedly clearing the military of collusion with the Abu Sayyaf. "Win or lose with regard Gracia’s testimony, the authorities should take honest stock of their capability to respond to similar incidents, and effect the needed improvements," he said. "Otherwise Reverend (Martin) Burnham, Edibora Yap and the other victims would have died in vain," Pichay said. Pimentel also called on the Palace to release the transcripts of Burnham’s testimony. But Bunye argued that to reveal this to the public would not serve any useful purpose, and in any event the court would decide whether to release the transcript. "I’m not sure what purpose it will serve but maybe Burnham did not intentionally mention it (alleged collusion) because she already wants to move forward," he said. Hurairah’s Last Hurrah? Meanwhile, a top Abu Sayyaf commander escaped, but two of his men were killed and another was wounded when troops attacked their hideout in Tawi-Tawi on Saturday. Marines and Navy commandos are tracking down the whereabouts of Abu Hurairah, a Jolo and Basilan-based Abu Sayyaf leader. Navy Capt. Feliciano Angue, Naval Task Force 62 chief, said government troops raided the hideout of Hurairah and clashed with his men at about 10 a.m. Saturday. "Abu Hurairah slipped (past) our forces while his followers covered him by fighting," he said. Angue said he believes that Abu Hurairah is still in Tawi-Tawi, and that they have alerted troops in the nearby provinces of Sulu and Basilan. He said Hurairah is of the same rank as Binang Andang who was captured Friday by Marines and Navy commandos under Col. Juancho Sabban. Andang, a relative of captured Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang alias Commander Robot, carries a P1-million reward on his head. He is tagged to have been involved in the kidnapping of walk-in hostage American Jeffrey Edwards Craig Schilling in 2000. Schilling escaped sometime in April 2001. Government troops have yet to recover three foreign seamen held hostage — Indonesian Walter Sampel, 53; and Malaysians Toh Chiu Tiong, 48, and Wong Siu Ung, 52, crewmen of tugboat M/L Ocean 2 - who were seized by the Abu Sayyaf last April 11, 2004 off Linkian island near Sabah. Angue said they are verifying reports that the hostages have been killed. — With reports from Marvin Sy, Roel Pareño, Paolo Romero https://www.diigo.com/item/note/27gb8/x2yq |
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Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan Manila, Philippines getflipzi@yahoo.com http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi " Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them!" " People don't care what we know until they know we care." | |
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10:30 PM Jul 11