ZAMBOANGA CITY, 8 October 2003 — The military yesterday mobilized the Philippine Navy warships participating in maritime exercises with Malaysia in the southern border to hunt down a group of gunmen who kidnapped 6 people in a raid on a tourist resort in Sabah.
Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko said the war exercise between the two countries have turned into a joint operation to track down the kidnappers and rescue their the hostages — three Filipinos and three Indonesians — who are all workers from the Borneo Paradise resort in Lahad Datu.
“We have converted the RP-Malaysia naval exercise into a joint operation to recover the victims,” Kyamko said in a news conference in Zamboanga City. He said the kidnappers could still be in Sabah.
The gunmen raided the resort late Sunday and seized the six workers after they failed find any foreigners there.
The gunmen sped off towards the southern Philippines onboard a speedboat, according to Philippines and Malaysian security officials.
Malaysian authorities have recovered the boat late Monday afternoon in Kunak in Sabah, about 25 nautical miles from the resort.
Two MG-520 choppers and two OV-10 bombers flew from Zamboanga City on Monday and headed toward the Sulu archipelago to conduct surveillance, but returned later in the day without reports of sightings of the kidnappers or their victims.
Kyamko, quoting Malaysian intelligence reports, said the kidnappers spoke in Malay and could be local bandits.
But he was quick to say that the military is not discounting the Abu Sayyaf rebels.
Security forces had earlier captured a suspected Abu Sayyaf member tagged as one of those who kidnapped a Taiwanese matriarch and her family members in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials yesterday presented Yusop Tadah, a day after he was captured in the port city of General Santos. Tadah, who has a 350,000-million-peso ($6,364) bounty for his capture, dead or alive, was implicated in the kidnapping of a Taiwanese woman and three of her family members several years ago in Zamboanga City.
“Tadah is one of the most wanted person in western Mindanao and ranked 10th in the country’s most wanted list and has a string of criminal cases and warrants for his arrest for kidnappings. He is also listed in the order of battle of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” a military statement said.
The military also linked Tadah to the failed Abu Sayyaf raid on a tourist resort and pearl farm off Mindanao in 2001.
Tadah, who was handcuffed, did not speak to reporters when presented by security officials yesterday at the tightly guarded Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City. He covered his face several times when photographers tried to take his pictures.
On Friday, government troops also captured a ranking Abu Sayyaf leader Salip Abdullah in Jolo Island. Officials said Abdullah was captured after soldiers stormed his hideout in the village of Kajaitan in Indanan town.
The military’s Southern Command implicated Abdullah in the kidnappings of the 56-year old Dr. Romeo Lao and his nephew Amor Rubio, 16, on Sept. 5 in downtown Jolo.
Abdullah was also tagged as one of those who participated in the kidnappings of 21 mostly Asian and Western holidaymakers in Sipadan Island resort off Sabah in 2000 and to the series of abductions and attacks on troops in Jolo, about 950 km south of Manila.
