Posted on 04/17/2002 7:40:43 PM PDT by repubmom
A senior military official said yesterday that prospects "are very, very high" for the safe rescue of American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf bandits for nearly 11 months now in Basilan.
Gen. Teofilo de los Santos cited as basis for his prediction the surrender over the weekend of 18 suspected Abu Sayyaf members as government troops closed in on the kidnappers.
"The surrender of the group points to the fact that these people are already having limited space... to escape. They are hopelessly short of foodstuff to support their day-to-day sustenance," De los Santos said.
He also said the capture of Abu Sayyaf leaders was imminent.
De los Santos made these observations at a Marines headquarters in Zamboanga City where 17 of the surrenderees were presented to the media.
Another suspect who turned himself in had a P20,000-bounty on his head. He was immediately flown to Manila for still unknown reasons.
"It is very evident that pressure brought forth by military actions forced them to surrender," De los Santos said.
He predicted that more Abu Sayyaf terrorists would lay down their arms under a relentless US-backed military campaign.
Some of the surrenderees said the Burnhams from Wichita, Kansas were in good shape, and vowed to provide more information on the whereabouts of the hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf was also holding Filipino nurse Deborah Yap who was captured during a siege on a hospital in her hometown of Lamitan in Basilan on June 2 last year.
De los Santos said the hostages were still in Basilan, belying reports that they have been smuggled out of the island by their captors.
He added that the suspects would be formally charged after subjecting them to tactical interrogation.
Some of them were implicated in the April 23, 2000 kidnapping of 21 mostly foreign guests of the posh Malaysian resort of Sipadan.
Intelligence reports indicated that the main Abu Sayyaf group split up into smaller factions to ease military pressure on them.
The group of Abu Sabaya who had custody of the hostages reportedly descended on Sumisip from their jungle lair in the Sampinit complex in central Basilan, while Isnilon Hapilon and his men marched toward Lantawan.
On the other hand, Isniraji Sali’s group went to Maluso town.
Meanwhile, local security forces killed three unknown gunmen and captured one Abu Sayyaf rebel in separate incidents in southern Philippines.
This developed as the military and militias stepped up security measures in Basilan amid reports that the Abu Sayyaf bandits were targeting civilians who refused to provide them food.
Reports reaching Manila said the shootout erupted after a group of gunmen opened fire on a military patrol on the small island of Lampinigan off Zamboanga City, triggering a running gunbattle that left three of the gunmen dead.
Army Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, spokesman for the AFP’s Southern Command, said investigators were trying to determine if the fatalities belonged to the Abu Sayyaf.
Military intelligence reports said Lampinigan was being used as a staging point for attacks by small armed groups in the area, including pirates and Abu Sayyaf terrorists who were holding an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse for nearly 11 months now.
Philippine troops being trained and advised by US military experts were tracking down the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers in Basilan in a bid to rescue the three hostages.
Two villagers, one of them a barangay councilman, were reportedly killed in an ambuscade staged by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen in a remote village in Sumisip town in Basilan.
The Burnhams have been treated very badly, and they have three young children at home. As someone said above, they really need prayer.
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