MILITARY PARALYZED AMID ABU SAYYAF DEATH THREATS
QUEZON CITY, (ABS-CBN) - Defense secretary Orlando Mercado admitted on Thursday
the military can do little to address threats by the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf to
behead its 13 evangelist hostages in Jolo, Sulu.
"We cannot do much about it because we've been asked to pull back of
our original position during the negotiations," Mercado said in an interview.
"Whereas before we had a military cordon in the area, now we have
pulled back our troops. So I think it's now in the hands of Secretary (Robert)
Aventajado," he added.
Mercado was reacting to published reports that the Abu Sayyaf is
threatening to behead the 13 evangelists of the Jesus Miracle Crusade led by Wilde Almeda,
whom the rebels recently took hostage.
The Abu Sayyaf earlier claimed that the evangelists were not being held
captive but had requested to stay in the rebel lair for some 40 days to pray over the 20
mostly foreign hostages abducted from a Malaysian island resort last April.
Almeda's group reportedly handed over $3,000 and 35 sacks to the
hostage-takers to enter their lair in the Talipao hinterlands last Saturday.
However, the rebels reportedly decided to hold the Christian group hostage
until a P7-million ransom is paid.
Reports also said that one faction of the extremist group headed by Radulan
Sahiron had earlier wanted to execute Almeda and his group for preaching the gospel in the
rebel camp in Bandang, Talipao.
Other rebel leaders - Galib Andang and Mujib Susukan - were reportedly able
to appease Sahiron eventually but not after a near shoot-out among the Abu Sayyaf members.
Apart from Almeda's group and the 20 mostly foreign hostages, the extremist
rebels are also holding a German journalist whom they abducted last July 3.
A Filipino journalist who visited an Abu Sayyaf hideout in the village of Tiis Kutong told
colleagues last Wednesday that he took photographs of Almeda and his 12 followers with
their hands tied behind their backs.
Previously, the bandits released a Malaysian hostage, Zulkarinian Hashim,
as an "act of goodwill" toward the Malaysian government.
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