DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao, 23 August — The government yesterday rejected talks with Moro kidnappers holding a Chinese and a Filipino in Central Mindanao, mounting a fresh offensive despite a threat to behead the hostages.
Security forces clashed with the gang near Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat province yesterday, killing one of the gunmen on the same day their leader warned the military to cease the offensive or they would decapitate the captives, officials said.
“We shouldn’t be negotiating with these kidnappers,” said military chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva.
“We cannot again place whole communities and the country hostage to the whims and desires of kidnappers,” Villanueva told reporters.
Two Chinese hostages were shot dead while a third was rescued on Sunday as the military mounted a bloody rescue attempt that also left seven of the kidnappers dead.
Officials say the gunmen are renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist group holding peace talks with Manila. The MILF has disowned the kidnappers.
Villanueva, himself clarified that the MILF had nothing to do with the kidnapping case.
Earlier, local army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando accused MILF forces in the area of providing the kidnap gang with logistic support and even manpower.
But General Villanueva, who visited Datu Odin Sinuat town on Monday, said they have established that the separatist group has nothing to do with the kidnappings.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Villanueva’s statement should put the issue to rest.
Ando had earlier said MILF identification papers were found in the bodies of several gunmen slain in a clash last week.
Kabalu said any identification card or document bearing the MILF’s name would be bogus since the group has never issued any single identification card even to its regular fighters.
The identification cards could have been planted by the troops themselves to destroy the MILF’s image both here and abroad, said Kabalu, who noted that the group’s international stature had tremendously improved particularly in the Muslim World.
Kabalu said the military knows that it is the gang called Pentagon that is currently holding the hostages.
This group is actually a remnant of a group led by a former MNLF commander engaged in kidnapping activities in Central Mindanao in the late 80s to early part of 90s, Kabalu said.
He said the gang operated in connivance with certain military commanders assigned in the area.
Several military officials, including a brigadier general and a colonel, were also accused by a Roman Catholic priest and other civilians of conniving with the dreaded Abu Sayyaf gang which is currently holding three Americans and over a dozen Filipinos hostages in Basilan.
