source: manilatimes.net 

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected rebels have captured two Marine intelligence agents on Basilan island, where security forces are fighting Abu Sayyaf militants blamed for terrorism and kidnappings in southern Mindanao.

The soldiers were identified as Corporals Jesse Duatin and Bernard Alcantara. They were believed to have been abducted early this week.

Intelligence sources on Thursday said the rebels wanted to swap the soldiers for a captured Abu Sayyaf militant, Sali Alih, who was implicated in the beheading of 14 Marines in fierce clashes last year in Basilan province’s Al-Barka town.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said he instructed Armed Forces chief Alexander Yano to look into the alleged kidnapping after receiving sketchy reports on it.

The two Marine intelligence agents were said to have been “lured” into setting a meeting with an emissary of commander Hadji Mas’ud alias Commander Long of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF. Mas’ud earlier supposedly sent surrender feelers to Col. Leonard Vincent Teodoro, commander of the Seventh Marine Battalion. The MILF has been battling for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao for more than 30 years.

Navy spokesman Edgardo Arevalo said Col. Teodoro sent the two soldiers to the area after he received a report on Mas’ud’s plan to turn himself in. The colonel would later learn that the soldiers were held and brought to a rebel camp.

Arevalo said the Defense secretary is working on the immediate release of the two hostages. He added that rescue, however, has been ruled out to give way to talks between Col. Teodoro and Mas’ud.

The Navy spokesman said the colonel was able to talk to the two Marines on Wednesday through a cell phone. The conversation, Arevalo added, proved that communication lines between the two parties are still open.

Arevalo assured that the military would not entertain the “prisoner swap” proposed by the MILF because such exchange is not government policy.

“We are consistent with our adherence to the stand of the government not to succumb to demands of ransom payment or agreeing to concessions,” he said.

It was learned that Mas’ud wanted the government to release Salih, his nephew, who was arrested recently by the military.

The military is preparing a protest against the MILF over the kidnapping of the two Marines. The protest will be submitted to the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities as the incident, the Armed Forces said, is considered as a “violation” of a ceasefire between the MILF and the government.

The MILF confirmed the abduction of the two soldiers, but it was unknown whether the abductors are connected with the rebel group, which is negotiating peace with Manila.

It said the soldiers are being held captive by followers of Mas’ud. “We have to verify this report, whether the soldiers are really being held by the MILF forces in Basilan, but for sure the MILF has no links whatsoever to the Abu Sayyaf group,” Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, told The Manila Times.

The Philippine military did not give any statements about the captive soldiers, but sources said there are negotiations to free the hostages.

Intelligence sources said the rebels threatened to execute the two Marines if Alih is not freed from military custody. Alih belongs to the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama, blamed for the spate of attacks on military patrols on Basilan.
--With Jefferson Antiporda 

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