Sabaya’s brod nabbed

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya was captured last Friday after government forces swooped down on their hideout in Jolo, Sulu, police said yesterday.

Sulu police chief Superintendent Candido Casimiro said elements from military intelligence and the Marine Battalion Landing Team 2 captured Sabaya’s brother Mulhayser Tilao, 22, and three other Abu Sayyaf extremists and killed ano-ther bandit after a brief gunfight.

Casimiro said the soldiers launched the raid shortly after noon of Friday on the hideout on Serrantes street near the Jolo public market.

One of the bandits perched on the roof of a nearby house fired on the soldiers, sparking a gunfight that sent civilians in the market scampering for safety. The soldiers later killed the sniper.

Aside from Tilao, the other captured bandits were identified as Talib Baharan, 19; Junior Ali, 23; and Ibnu Mubarak, 15. The slain sniper remained unidentified and his body unclaimed until late yesterday.

Tilao’s brother Sabaya, whose real name is Aldam Tilao, is a member of the Abu Sayyaf group, led by Khadaffi Janjalani, which is still holding 16 Filipinos and two Americans hostage in the jungles of nearby Basilan island.

Janjalani’s brother Hector has also been captured and is facing drug charges before a Taguig City court. Hector was caught in Manila while trying to sell a videotape of American hostage Jeffrey Schilling, who was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf last year.

Khadafi and Hector are brothers of Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani who was killed by government troops in December 1998 during a clash in Lamitan town.

Janjalani’s group has been engaged in kidnapping Christians and foreigners in western Mindanao for years and last year, abducted more than 50 Christian schoolteachers, students and church workers in Basilan and seized Schilling in Sulu in two separate incidents.

Last May 27, the Muslim fundamentalists raided the upscale Dos Palmas island resort off Palawan and seized 20 people, including three Americans, Californian Guillermo Sobero and American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham.

They brought their hostages to Basilan and seized four more hospital workers when they raided the hospital in Lamitan on June 2.

The military was able to corner the bandits in the town’s church-hospital compound and several hostages, including construction magnate Reghis Romero, managed to escape.

But the bandits and their other hostages slipped through the military cordon and fled into the Sampinit complex mountain range which straddles the borders of four Basilan towns. They have been fleeing government troops since then.

The incident has sparked a congressional investigation into the Lamitan incident, especially after Lamitan parish priest Cirilo Nacroda claimed the military allowed the bandits and their hostages to escape in exchange for a share in the ransom.

Persistent reports claim that Romero was released along with his female companion and a small boy because he had already paid ransom during the siege but the construction magnate denied the allegation.

The bandits claimed to have beheaded Sobero on June 12 as a gruesome "gift" to President Arroyo but pursuing government forces have not found his body.

Civilian informers claim the Burnhams, who have been residing in the country for the past 15 years, are still alive and have been seen being dragged by their captors in the jungles of Basilan.

Also on Friday, another Abu Sayyaf bandit was killed in an gunfight with elements of the 18th Infantry Battalion, under Lt. Col. Danilo Lucero, in Barangay Caddayan in Tuburan, also in Basilan.

"The troops were in ambush position in Sitio Libbey when they chanced upon the advanced guards of the Abu Sayyaf passing by their position," said Lt. Col. Darwin Guerra of the Armed Forces Southern Command.

A brief encounter erupted. resulting in the killing of one bandit while an undetermined number of other bandits were suspected wounded as they fled in an unknown direction.

Lucero said the slain bandit was positively identified by some Lamitan residents as among those who attacked the town hospital on June 2.

Meanwhile, 50 heavily armed Abu Sayyaf bandits attacked and torched the house of government militia troops earlier on Friday in a remote village Sumisip, also in Basilan.

Guerra said a militiaman identified as Monib Garoni was killed in the attack on his house.

The bandits, led by a certain Amir Mingkong, also attacked the house of his brother Usmin but he managed to escape the bandits who later burned both their houses.