Rebel leader sent back to Manila
Rebel leader sent back to Manila
MANILA (Agencies): A detained leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap
gang was turning into political football on Friday as provincial
officials sent him back to the Philippine capital Manila amid
fears of a rebel backlash if his trial goes ahead.
The justice department was forced to remove Hector Janjalani,
brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, from a prison in
the southern city of Zamboanga after local officials secured a
Supreme Court ruling barring his trial there.
Janjalani was to have been tried in Zamboanga in July for
multiple kidnappings, but provincial officials feared the Abu
Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group known for its spate of kidnappings
and for attacks on Christians, might try to rescue Janjalani or
disrupt the trial with bombings and other attacks.
Escorted by soldiers and jail officials, the hand-cuffed
defendant was flown back to Manila and taken to a police jail in
the southeastern suburb of Taguig.
About 47 other arrested Abu Sayyaf suspects would be flown to
Manila at a later date, said Belcie Agustin, spokesman for the
Zamboanga city prison.
After Zamboanga secured the Supreme Court ban, the justice
department proposed to move the trial to the central city of
Cebu, but the local government there also objected.
Janjalani will now be tried in Taguig at an undisclosed date.
Jail sources said he would face other charges in Manila as well.
The mayor of Taguig, Freddie Tinga said his constituents have
"very serious concerns about the potential powderkeg in the
community" caused by Janjalani's arrival.
About 20,000 Muslims live in the district, he said.
Janjalani was arrested in a shopping mall here last year while
trying to sell a videotape of an American hostage the Abu Sayyaf
then held.
He faces charges over the kidnapping of the American and about
50 Filipinos in an earlier hostage crisis which has since been
resolved.
Despite his arrest, the Abu Sayyaf launched a new kidnapping
spree in May, seizing U.S. and Filipino hostages. They still hold
at least two Americans and 16 Filipinos in the southern island of
Basilan.
The gang has eluded a 5,000-strong military task force in
Basilan. It has freed some Filipino hostages, reportedly in
exchange for ransoms, but also murdered 14 others.
The crisis has been compounded by accusations from former
victims that military officials colluded with the kidnappers to
help them escape a military cordon in June. Congress is
investigating the charges.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes visited Basilan on Friday,
saying he was "to check out the situation there" on the orders of
President Gloria Arroyo.
Meanwhile, the Philippines will pay compensation of $5,000 to
the next of kin of two Chinese men killed during a clash between
soldiers and kidnappers holding the pair in the southern
Philippines a week ago.
Another Chinese national escaped during the shootout on the
island of Mindanao, while the whereabouts of a fourth Chinese man
and his Filipino companion, who were also being held captive,
were unknown, army officials said last Sunday.
Officials said the dead men, and the other who escaped, were
engineers who had come to the Philippines to seek the release of
a colleague who was abducted in June while working on an
irrigation project on Mindanao.