ZAMBOANGA CITY, 19 February 2007 — A movie being cooked in Hollywood plans to portray the role played by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines, and Filipino leftist activists are upset.
To be titled on “Jihadists in Paradise,” the film would revolve around the ordeal of an American missionary couple who were kept for 18 months by the Abu Sayyaf and the death of militant leader Aldam Tilao, alias Abu Sabaya, in 2002.
The American missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, were among 20 foreign and local tourists abducted by Sabaya’s group from a resort on the western Philippine island of Palawan in 2001.
Using disguises, the bandits took their captives by a commandeered ship to their stronghold Basilan Island in the southern Philippines, where they beheaded a third American named Guillermo Sobero to show that they meant business.
An elite team of US-trained Philippine troops tracked down and killed Sabaya in a sea battle in the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao Island in July 2002, nearly six months after 1,200 US soldiers descended on Basilan to help train and advise the local military. Days before Sabaya’s death, troops pounced on his group that was holding the remaining hostages in Zamboanga’s jungles, rescuing Gracia and a Basilan nurse. Martin, however, was killed by a stray bullet.
Details of the US intelligence agencies’ role in tracking down Sabaya’s group using the most advanced eavesdropping equipment were contained in an article titled “Jihadists in Paradise” by Mark Bowden for the Atlantic Monthly.
“A kidnapping at a Philippine resort triggered a yearlong hunt for pirate terrorists and their American hostages. A behind-the-scenes tale of intrigue, spycraft, and betrayal,” wrote Bowden in his opening piece.
Disney and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer bought the screen rights to the article, said Variety.Com on its website on Feb. 15. Bowden, author of the best-selling book “Blackhawk Down,” was chosen to write the screenplay of the movie. Bowden has a number of books and articles being developed into Hollywood films and box office hit “Black Hawk Down” is his biggest film to date. The deal will also see Bruckheimer re-team with Bowden, as the two worked together on “Black Hawk Down.”
A video of the operation taken by a US spy plane, which was posted in the Atlantic Monthly website, showed 6 black figures, believed to be Sabaya and his group, walking to a waiting speedboat — guarded by another figure — under the cover of darkness.
Filipino Marines onboard several boats attacked Sabaya’s group as he tried to escape a remote coastal village in Zamboanga del Norte province.
Senior Filipino military commanders likened the black and white footage to a Hollywood espionage movie. The video was taken using a thermal camera.
But the left-wing group Pamalakaya warned that the film was yet another propaganda by the US government.
“It’s propaganda and a psy-war movie aimed at justifying the United States’ unwanted, immoral and anti-people intervention in the domestic affairs of the country,” said Pamalakaya spokesman Gerry Albert Corpuz.
Cruz said the film should also take into account the alleged collusion of the rebels with some generals and political warlords. (With a report by Reuters)
