An alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly died while in the custody of naval personnel in Zamboanga City, where he was brought for interrogation, a military officer said Saturday.
The officer, who requested not to be named, said Tandico Saddae reportedly succumbed in a hospital in Zamboanga, where he was brought after complaining of chest pains Friday night.
Saddae reportedly tried to escape by jumping from a Navy ship while being brought to Zamboanga from Tawi-Tawi, where he was arrested.
“He jumped after asking his guard to [untie] him so could pray. He tried to escape his custodians but was caught again,” the officer said.
Reporters tried to get the side of the Navy, but its spokesman, Cmdr. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, was attending a Toast Master Speech Contest.
Saddae, who also uses the aliases Ustadz Tandoco and Anwar Saddae, was captured by a police and military team in a market place in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.
Initial reports reaching Camp Crame said Saddae took part in the abduction of 21 tourists and resort workers in a resort in Sipadan, Malaysia, in April 2000.
A senior police official confirmed Saddae’s arrest, but declined to make any comment, saying the Navy is the primary agency in the operation that captured Saddae.
Government troops have been engaged in a two-pronged offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front in Jolo.
--Anthony Vargas and AFP