Inquirer Mindanao

Basilan deaths rise to 12

News

Apr 122014

3:37 am | Sunday, April 13th, 2014

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The death toll in the fighting between Muslim rebels and soldiers in the southern Philippines has risen to 12, officials in the area said Saturday.

Over 28 soldiers were also reported wounded in running gunbattles that began on Friday in the towns of Ungkaya Pukan and Tipotipo in Basilan province between government forces and suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

The latest report from the Western Mindanao Command said the casualties included five suspected Abu Sayyaf members and two government soldiers, correcting earlier reports that listed only three casualties on the side of the Islamist fighters after the military attacked their bases in Ungkaya Pukan and Tipotipo on Friday.

Capt. Jefferson Mamauag, a Philippine Army spokesperson, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that seven Abu Sayyaf members had been killed, “with authorities now searching for their burial sites.”

Mamauag also said three members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Muslim guerrilla force with whom the government has just signed a peace agreement, were also killed Friday, but “their bodies were as yet unrecovered.”

According to Alton Angeles, municipal planning officer of the town where most of the fighting occurred, MILF guerrillas were fighting alongside the government troops.

However, MILF vice chair Ghazali Jaafar told AFP the rebel leadership had yet to receive a report of MILF casualties.

“It’s possible people got killed because there was a firefight,” Jaafar told AFP by telephone. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; AFP, AP

LP candidates on way to rally lost at sea, end up in Sabah jail

News

Apr 102013

LP candidates on way to rally lost at sea, end up in Sabah jail

By Nikko Dizon Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:53 am | Thursday, April 11th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—Rough seas swept away a motorboat carrying a Liberal Party mayoral candidate, his running mate and 30 supporters from Tawi-Tawi on Tuesday and took it to, of all places, Lahad Datu in Sabah, site of five weeks of fighting between Malaysian security forces and followers of the sultan of Sulu. As a result, Rommel Matba, his vice mayoral running mate Amman Matba and 30 village leaders from Languyan town in Tawi-Tawi landed in a police station in Sandakan, where Malaysian police took them on suspicion they were reinforcements for the decimated forces of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III. Jamalul’s press officer Abraham Idjirani confirmed on Wednesday that Matba and his group were politicians campaigning for local elections in Languyan and not members of the sultanate’s security forces. “I was told they were traveling to Mapun municipality, also in Tawi-Tawi, for [a Liberal Party] rally when they were lost at sea because of strong currents in Tambisan Bay,” Idjirani told the Inquirer by phone. Capt. Rene Yongque, commander of Naval Task Force 62, reported that rough seas swept the Liberal Party group’s motorboat across the border at Taganak Island in Tawi-Tawi where it was intercepted by Malaysian border police. Rescued? But Acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao used a different term to describe the misadventure of Matba’s group. “They were rescued by Malaysian maritime personnel and were taken to Sabah,” Hataman said. “We Read More …

Heroic ‘yaya’ hugging boy, escape from their kidnappers

News

Feb 092013

Heroic ‘yaya’ hugging boy, escape from their kidnappers

Philippine Daily Inquirer 1:01 am | Sunday, February 10th, 2013 OZAMIZ CITY—The family of the 1-year-old Filipino-Canadian boy kidnapped in Pagadian City on Thursday morning credited his 17-year-old nanny for his safe return on Friday. The boy was snatched along with his nanny at around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday after armed men barged into the family’s house on Sto. Rosario Road in Dau village. Karen Maata, mother of the kidnapped boy, said nanny Carolyn Remetre seized an opportunity to flee when the kidnappers briefly left them unguarded in a safe house here on Friday afternoon. Maata, who came over to fetch her son, Timothy Sokolov, and the nanny after the escape, recounted to reporters the girl’s story—how, in her determination to escape from captivity, she hugged Timothy tight, double-checked that nobody was watching them and dashed to freedom. “She was crying and distraught and decided to go inside Gaisano Mall,” Maata said, noting that the girl did not know who to run to for help. She said Remetre decided to sit in a corner inside Gaisano Mall while trying to compose herself and thinking of a place to go when local policeman PO1 Alex Bentero saw her crying. Maata said that initially, the nanny refused to open up to Bentero because he was a stranger despite his being in uniform. But she finally talked when he persisted in questioning her, she said. Bentero then took Remetre and Timothy to the city police station, where Maata said she and the Zamboanga Read More …

Canadian’s year-old son abducted along with nanny in Pagadian

News

Feb 072013

Canadian’s year-old son abducted along with nanny in Pagadian

By Richel Umel Inquirer Mindanao 5:09 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – A group of still unidentified armed men snatched the one-year old son of a Pagadian City-based Canadian businessman and the boy’s nanny around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Superintendent Julius Munez, Pagadian City police chief, said the armed men barged into the house of the family of the Canadian trader on Sto. Rosario Road in Dau village and took the boy and the nanny at gunpoint. The boy’s father was not around when the gunmen struck. Munez said police have launched a search and rescue operation to recover the victims.