MANILA, 23 October — Lanao del Sur-based kidnappers have turned over Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Muslim separatist group currently holding peace talks with the government, a military official said yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo, head of a task force formed to rescue the priest, said local officials had informed him that the 44-year-old priest from Bologna was now in the hands of Ustadz Ali Acas, whom he identified as commander of the MILF’s 303rd Brigade based in the town of Sultan Gumander in Lanao del Sur province in Mindanao.
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied Atutubo’s report.
While admitting that there is such a name Ali Abas in the roster of MILF, he is not of the rank of operational commander, he said.
Bandits seized Pierantoni on Oct. 19 after he celebrated mass in Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur province.
“Mayors and other local officials have confirmed that the priest is now with the MILF,” Atutubo said in a telephone interview with reporters at the armed forces’ national headquarters just outside Manila. “Our ground troops and intelligence agents are now checking the information that the priest is in Sultan Gumander.”
A military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a special anti-terrorist team sent to reinforce Atutubo’s task force had encircled the area where Pierantoni was being held.
The official said the anti-terrorist team was formed after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. He said the team had modern weapons, communications equipment, vehicles, speedboats and aircraft provided by the US government.
Atutubo would neither confirm nor deny the report but said his men were ready to move in if given the go-ahead by higher authorities.
It was in the same area where kidnappers turned over Chinese engineer Zhang Zhongyi to MILF emissaries on Friday.
The military earlier said the kidnappers of Pierantoni, Zhang and three other Chinese engineers had links with the MILF, but the MILF has disowned the gang and its members.
Kabalu had earlier said the “Pentagon” gang, composed mostly of rogue ex-MILF guerrillas, should be treated as criminals.
The principal suspects in Pierantoni’s kidnapping have been identified as Faizal Marohombsar and Norham Amil alias Ramsey, the alleged leaders of the gang.
The National Bureau of Investigation filed Monday a kidnapping complaint against Amil and seven others. The Zamboanga del Sur police also filed a separate complaint against Amil, Marohombsar and several others.
Impossible
MILF spokesman Kabalu said it was impossible for Acas to be in Lanao del Sur. “Acas is a Maguindanaoan, not a Maranao. He could not be in Lanao. He is in Camp Abubakar, which is in Maguindanao,” he said.
Besides, Kabalu said, Acas was not a brigade commander as Atutubo claimed. “He (Acas) is just a mere commander. He belongs to the religious sector. Acas is like a chaplain,” he said.
Kabalu on Sunday offered his group’s help in negotiating the priest’s release.
He said the MILF was ready to provide military muscle to go after the kidnappers, “in the proper time, and if asked” by the government.
Officials said negotiations for the release of Pierantoni had begun, with the rebels asking an unspecified ransom.
But Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, head of the armed forces’ Southern Command, said the talks were only meant to persuade the gunmen to free Pierantoni unconditionally “for humanitarian reasons.”
