Some July 10 incident suspects left Basilan already – Calderon

By Ronron
August 7, 2007

The Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership said Tuesday that some of the suspects behind the July 10 incident in Basilan have already left the island province amid the police and military’s massive presence there.

PNP chief Gen. Oscar Calderon made the admission in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo following a joint command conference of the military and the police.

“We believe some have fled outside Basilan, So those we can can find in Zamboanga and in nearby provinces, anybody could make the arrest, the local government officials,” Calderon said.

Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. supported Calderon’s statement by saying: “That’s very probable but we’d like to think that most of them are still in the area.”

Esperon revealed that the authorities have “determined some targets, specifically those areas that are suspected to be harboring elements of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).”

Asked how many forces are there, he said: “We have a low of 20 Abu Sayyaf members which could increase with the number of lawless elements that could probably be in the area.”

He refused to answer, however, if these areas are close to known Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) communities, saying it would be going through some operational details that he does not wish to telegraph.

The MILF has owned up the clash against government troops last July 10, saying the Marines encroached their territory without prior coordination as required by the ceasefire agreement of the government and the MILF.

But it belied being joined by ASG rebels especially when the latter were found to be responsible for the mutilation of 10 of the 14 killed soldiers.

The hunt for the 127 suspects by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Basilan Judge Leo Jay Principe began last August 2, but has yet to produce positive results.

The Marine soldiers at that time have just finished checking the whereabouts of abducted Italian priest Fr. Gian Carlo Bossi when they were fired upon by MILF rebels while in the area of Al-Barka town./DMS