Abu Sayyaf beheads two Vietnamese hostages in Basilan

 Entertainment
Jul 082017
 

A report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer cited a report to officials including Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. indicating Filipinos are among the Southeast Asians being lured to conflict zones in the Middle East. Some Islamic militants are home-grown, just like the Abu Sayyaf (in photo), who have links with al-Qaeda terrorists. (Photo from http://vkb.isvg.org/Wiki/Groups/Abu_Sayyaf_Group_(ASG))

MANILA, July 5 (Mabuhay) — The Abu Sayyaf has beheaded two of its Vietnamese captives in Basilan and holds three more even as military operations continue to locate the bandit group and their hostages.

The decapitated bodies of the two, identified as Hoang Thong and Hoang Va Hai, were recovered on Wednesday in Barangay Tumahubong in Sumisip town by a resident, according to Col. Juvymax Uy, commander of Joint Task Force Basilan.

“The bodies were found at 5:40 in the morning by a member of the local populace,” Uy said. “The cadavers will be made to undergo forensic exams as coordination with the Vietnamese embassy is also simultaneously done.”

The two were among the six Vietnamese crew members of MV Royal 16 that was attacked on November 11 last year off Sibago Island in Basilan.

One of the hostages, 28-year-old Hoang Vo, was rescued by the military in Sampinit Complex, also in Sumisip, last month.

Those still being held by the Abu Sayyaf were identified as Pham Minh Tuan, Do Trung Hieu and Tran Khac Dung.

“[The] three other KVs (kidnap victims) are subject of the intensive ongoing rescue operations conducted by the troops of Basilan,” said Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command. (MNS)

OFWs vulnerable to nuclear terrorism, Binay warns ahead of world nuke summit

 Entertainment
Mar 252014
 
OFWs vulnerable to nuclear terrorism, Binay warns ahead of world nuke summit

Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay payS tribute to seven marines killed last year in a clash with Abu Sayyaf militants in Jolo, southern Philippines, during the wake at the Philippine Marines headquarters at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig city, east of Manila, Philippines last May 27. At least seven Filipino marines and an equal number of Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in a clash in a new U.S.-backed offensive aimed at rescuing six foreign and Filipino hostages and stopping the al-Qaida-linked gunmen from staging more kidnappings in the country’s south, a military commander said Sunday. (MNS photo) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – It does matter that the Philippines does not have nuclear weapons nor operate nuclear power plants; millions of Filipinos – particularly those working abroad – are vulnerable to any act of nuclear terrorism. This was the warning of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay on Saturday, just before leaving for the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands. The Vice President is representing President Benigno S. Aquino III in the biennial summit. He is also the Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns. “With over 10 million of our kababayans living and working overseas, any act of nuclear terrorism in any part of the world will inevitably victimize scores of Filipinos,” Binay said. “The Philippines does not possess nuclear material that may be turned into a nuclear weapon by terrorists or other non-State actors, nor does it operate nuclear power plants. Yet the relevance of nuclear security to the Philippines cannot be underestimated.” North America Read More …

Jordanian journalist expected back in Manila–PNP

 News
Dec 062013
 
Jordanian journalist expected back in Manila–PNP

By Julliane Love de JesusINQUIRER.net 2:05 pm | Friday, December 6th, 2013 Veteran Middle Eastern TV reporter Baker Atyani looks at his X-ray record as he undergoes medical check-up following his release from one-and-a-half years of captivity in Jolo, the capital of the island province of Sulu in Southern Philippines late Wednesday Dec.4, 2013. (AP Photo/Nickee Butlangan) MANILA, Philippines–The Jordanian journalist who escaped his Abu Sayyaf captors is expected back in Manila later this Friday, the Philippine National Police said Friday. He’s on his way here,” Chief Superintendent Noel delos Reyes of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told a media briefing. Baker Atyani is expected to be brought to the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group office upon his arrival. PNP spokesperson Reuben Theodore Sindac added that the Jordanian journalist may arrive at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City between 3 and 4 p.m.After 18 months in captivity, Atyani escaped from the Abu Sayyaf camp in Patikul, Sulu on Wednesday. Follow Us Recent Stories: Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines. Tags: Abu Sayyaf , Baker Atyani , captive , Jordan , journalist , Moro rebel group , release Factual errors? Contact the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s day desk. Believe this article violates journalistic ethics? Contact the Inquirer’s Reader’s Advocate. Or write The Readers’ Read More …

Malaysian who escaped Abu Sayyaf flown home

 News
Aug 092013
 
Malaysian who escaped Abu Sayyaf flown home

A plantation assistant manager who was abducted along with his cousin by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits last year finally returned to his home in Malaysia Thursday night. Chong Wei Jie, 25, is now at his family residence in Bukit Pelanduk in Port Dickson, Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported Friday. “He was flown home from Manila and arrived around 10 p.m. He was then taken to a hospital for a medical checkup before his family brought him to Port Dickson,” the report quoted state police commisioner Datuk Hamza Taib as saying. Suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits, notorious for their kidnapping activities including of foreigners, abducted Chong and his cousin Chong Wei Fei, 33, last Nov. 13 while they were at an oil palm plantation in Felda Sahabat near Tambisan in Lahad Datu. The group took the two to Jolo by boat and held them captive. Wei Jie managed to escape and was found on a highway in Pasil village in Indanan town in Sulu last Tuesday. However, he told police his cousin had died due to illness as early as April 8. — KBK, GMA News

Suspected Abu Sayyaf sub-leader-turned-OFW nabbed in Quezon City

 News
Jul 292013
 
Suspected Abu Sayyaf sub-leader-turned-OFW nabbed in Quezon City

By Marlon RamosPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:53 pm | Monday, July 29th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines — Intelligence operatives of the police and the military have arrested a suspected sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf who had allegedly found a new life as an overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia. Sali Basal Taib, alias Gong-gong Sali and Abu Husni, was among the Abu Sayyaf bandits involved in the Lamitan, Basilan, siege in 2001, Director Francisco Uyami, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said Monday. Uyami said Taib was arrested by CIDG and Army personnel in Payatas, Quezon City, on July 25 after he brought his son to school. Taib was facing a string of kidnapping cases in Basilan and carried a P5.3-million reward for his arrest, he added. “He was able to leave the country using (fake documents) and worked as electrician in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,” Uyami said in a news briefing at Camp Crame. “Like other Abu Sayyaf bandits, (Taib) left Basilan and lived a normal life. He had just returned to the country for a vacation and to observe Ramadan. Fortunately, we were able to get information about his whereabouts,” he said. Taib’s arrest was covered by arrest warrants separately issued by Isabela City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 1 Judge Leo Jay Principe and Isabela RTC Branch 2 Judge Danilo Bucoy. According to Uyami, Taib was one of the heavily-armed bandits who ran over the town of Lamitan and occupied the Don Jose Torres Memorial Hospital in 2001. Read More …

US warns against travel to Mindanao

 News
Jul 062013
 
US warns against travel to Mindanao

Agence France-Presse 2:24 pm | Saturday, July 6th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The United States has warned Americans against travel to Mindanao just days after Australia and Canada issued similar advice. A “security message” from the US embassy in Manila earlier this week said diplomatic staff had been restricted from travelling to three cities on the southern island of Mindanao. It was followed by a US State Department travel warning dated July 5 advising Americans to exercise extreme caution when travelling to Mindanao, citing “criminal gangs… (and) terrorist groups” in the area. It also called on Americans to defer non-essential travel to the Sulu archipelago, a chain of islands off Mindanao where Al-Qaeda-linked extremists are active. “It (the travel warning) reflects continuing threats in the Sulu archipelago and the island of Mindanao due to terrorist and insurgent activities,” the US embassy said in a statement. Australia and Canada issued warnings on Wednesday about fresh threats of terrorism and kidnapping in the southern Philippines. Canberra has barred its diplomats from travelling to Davao, Cotabato and Zamboanga — the same three Mindanao cities that US embassy staff are not allowed to travel to. An embassy spokeswoman declined to comment on the nature of the threat against Americans. The Philippine National Police also did not know of any specific threat against Americans in Mindanao, said spokesman Senior Superintendent Reuben Sindac. Mindanao and surrounding islands are a hotbed of various armed groups including communist guerrillas, bandits, Muslim insurgents and the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group Read More …

Amnesty appeals to Filipino captors of 2 sisters

 News
Jun 262013
 
Amnesty appeals to Filipino captors of 2 sisters

Associated Press 12:19 pm | Thursday, June 27th, 2013 Nadjoua Bansil (left) and sister Linda (right). AP MANILA, Philippines—Amnesty International and the family of two Filipino-Algerian sisters called for suspected Islamic extremists to release the women immediately, saying Thursday that they are human rights defenders and filmmakers who focused on the plight of impoverished Muslims in Mindanao. Nadjoua and Linda Bansil were taken by about 10 suspected Abu Sayyaf members Saturday in southern Sulu province’s Patikul town while working on a short film about Muslim coffee farmers. At least three companions of the sisters, who were seized from a van, were left behind by the gunmen, police said. Their brother, Mohammed Bansil, noted that his sisters were seized while tackling the very issues at the root of the decades-old minority Muslim unrest in the southern Philippines. “Instead of filming, they now have become the story,” he told The Associated Press. Ritz Lee Santos, who heads Amnesty International Philippines, said that the sisters have been longtime human rights volunteers. “It’s sad that they were taken because they went to Sulu to tell the whole country about the struggles of poor Muslims,” he said. Linda Bansil, 37, wrote for Amnesty International publications in the Philippines and her 39-year-old sister volunteered work on films about the travails and culture of Filipino tribesmen. They also worked together to produce low-budget, independent films showcasing Filipino Muslim life and culture, their family said. “Even on the streets, they’ll pick up homeless children or intervene when somebody’s Read More …

Palace downplays US travel alert notice

 News
Jun 052013
 
Palace downplays US travel alert notice

The United States was just being “prudent” when it issued an alert notice to its citizens in the Philippines, Malacañang said Wednesday as it downplayed the advisory. “That’s part of their alert notice to their citizens. Very recently, they made a travel alert also. Again, this part of their being prudent as someone who would like to protect their citizens here,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing. In an advisory, the US State Department cited the growing terrorist groups particularly in Mindanao that are targeting foreigners. The report also classified the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed branch, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist groups. Lacierda said although the notorious Abu Sayyaf bandit group still exists, its numbers have been “effectively decimated” by the military. “We are aware of the presence of Abu Sayyaf. It is not a secret but the Abu Sayyaf is more or less a bandit group already. Our Armed Forces have effectively decimated their numbers,” he said. “They have been reduced to a kidnap-for-ransom group and that’s the status right now, and we continue to pursue lawless elements in the country,” Lacierda added. Lacierda, however, refused to comment on the US State Department’s classification of the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group. “Well, it’s not for us to say ‘do we agree or not’. That’s how they would like to classify the CPP-NPA,” he said. — Patricia Denise Chiu/KBK, GMA News

US: Corruption abets terror in PH

 News
Jun 012013
 
US: Corruption abets terror in PH

By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 2:08 am | Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—While citing its “strong counterterrorism cooperation” with the Philippines, the United States noted that “official corruption” and resource and personnel constraints had stymied the country’s antiterror campaign. In its latest Country Reports on Terrorism released this week, the US Department of State, however, lauded the Philippines continuing pressure on known terror groups, saying that its efforts in the last decade “have been successful at isolating and constraining the activities of domestic and transnational terrorists.” Mindanao remains classified as a “terrorist haven” due to the presence of the al-Qaida linked Abu Sayyaf which the US had tagged  as a foreign terrorist organization. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), also remain on the terror list. “The Philippines has coordinated with US law enforcement authorities, especially regarding US  fugitives and suspected terrorists. An under-resourced and understaffed law enforcement and justice system coupled with widespread official corruption, however, resulted in limited domestic investigations, unexecuted arrest warrants, few prosecutions, and lengthy trials of cases,” said the report released on May 30. The report noted, for instance, that the proscription case the Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) brought against the Abu Sayyaf, the first of its kind that sought to officially tag the group as a terrorist organization under the 2007 Human Security Act, had remained pending by the end of last year. The US also cited a Manila court’s dismissal of an Read More …