Philippine military lifts hostage island
quarantine
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, Sept 29
(AFP) - The Philippines military lifted a quarantine on the southern island of Jolo
Friday, allowing its nearly 400,000 people to get out of the way of an assault on Muslim
extremist hostage-takers.
Observers said the resumption
of civilian maritime traffic showed the military was confident the Abu Sayyaf gunmen would
be unable to escape by boat with their captives -- three Malaysians, an American and 13
Filipinos.
"We believe they are still
on the island," armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Generoso Senga told radio
station DZMM in Manila on Friday.
However, "since the start
of this campaign we have been conducting parallel operations in other areas, like Basilan
(island) and Zamboanga" in anticipation of the kidnappers' possible escape from Jolo.
The lone ferry service between
Jolo and the southern city of Zamboanga opened its ticket counters early Friday, company
officials told AFP.
The firm, called Weesam
Express, said the ferry service to Tawi-Tawi island would also resume Friday. The assault
on nearby Jolo on September 16 had also isolated Tawi-Tawi's quarter million residents
from the rest of the country.
Radio reports said there were
few passengers aboard the ferry which left for Jolo shortly before 9 am (0100 GMT).
The government said 62,900
people, or more than 16 percent of Jolo island's residents had fled their homes.
A police report in Manila said
troops have confiscated a number of boats used by the Abu Sayyaf in the Jolo town of Luuk.
The navy killed two guerrillas when an Abu Sayyaf unit tried to leave the island by boat
off the coastal town of Parang on Wednesday.
Senga said Friday that the
campaign was proceeding apace despite rising government casualties.
He said two soldiers were
killed in the latest clash near Talipao town on Wednesday, raising the military's toll to
four soldiers dead compared to 111 guerrillas slain and 49 captured.
He said the troops have taken a
big chunk off the Abu Sayyaf's armory with the seizure of more than 6,100 rounds of
ammunition and 110 firearms, including heavy weaponry.
While the operation has little
to show except for the escape of two French hostages last week, Defense Secretary Orlando
Mercado said Thursday that "firefights are becoming more frequent, indicating that
(Abu Sayyaf's) room for manoeuver is getting smaller."
President Joseph Estrada sent
the army into Jolo on September 16 to end a vicious cycle of kidnappings, which began with
a cross-border raid on the Malaysian resort of Sipadan on April 23.
Meanwhile, Senga on Friday
skirted allegations in the local press that US hostage Jeffrey Schilling, who was
kidnapped in Jolo on August 28, was in fact an Islamic extremist in league with his
supposed kidnappers.
The Malaya daily said
government forces retrieved a Schilling diary from an abandoned Abu Sayyaf camp which
suggested he was not a hostage.
"We are very careful in
dealing with this matter because we cannot make a conclusion just like that," Senga
said, adding, "until now, we assume and presume him to be a hostage. And so his safe
rescue is our foremost concern."
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