Showing posts with label MILF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MILF. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
MILF Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part IV: The BIFF and BIAF at Each Other's Throats Once Again
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Saturday, August 20, 2011
MILF Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part I: The 106 Base Command Battles BIFF in Datu Piang
Datu Piang was a half Chinese, half Maguindanowan Tribesman who lived at the tail end of the 19th Century. Piang was more or less a self made man. Son of a Maguindanowan concubine to the Rajah of Buayan and a favoured Chinese merchant she was gifted to he gambled his future on an alliance with the Americans. As Datu Ali inherited what was left of Buayan Datu Piang moved down river into the Cotabato Basin, to a lowland site in what is today Maguindanao Province. Eventually becoming the richest man in the Southern Philippines his climb to riches and fame was made over the broken backs of countless enemies and more than a few innocent bystanders. Like its namesake, the municipality of Datu Piang, in Maguindanao Province has never enjoyed more than a few peaceful days. Datu Piang is perhaps the most violent town in an extremely violent province which itself exists on the Philippine's most violent island.
In early August of 2010 a clash took place in Datu Piang between sub-Kumander Ustadz Akas "Adzmie" Kasim of the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (the military wing of the MILF) and sub-Kumander Ustadz Abu Nuwas "Bayawak" Ibad Maniog of the BIAF's 104 Base Command (see my entry entilted "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second and Third Quarters of 2010"). Both men are natives of Datu Piang's Barangay Alonganen and in fact are related to one another as indeed are most villagers living in that barangay. At stake was a 6 hectare tract of arable land immediately adjacent to the Pulangi River (Rio Grande del Mindanao), situated directly on the border of Datu Piang's Barangays Alonganen and Liong and a stone's throw from the infamous Liguasan Marsh. The conflicting claims on the untitled tract first turned violent in 2009 but was largely ignored by the Philippine Government and world at large. After all, any armed conflict in Central Mindanao must automatically be connected to War of 2008, a larger conflict that continued unabated until July of 2009, or so goes the popular assumption.
The firefights lasted only as long as the rice harvest since most of that 6 hectare tract had been cultivated with rice. As soon as the paddy was plowed under life returned to normal, at least as "normal" as it ever gets in Mindanao. Just before New Year 2011 sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nawas) tendered his formal resignation to the MILF Central Committe and almost immediately afterward joined Kumander Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato's Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF. Fast forward to July 20th, 2011. BIFF's Chief of Staff, sub-Kumander Karialan Indong personaly led an attack on BIAF 106 Base Command positions in Barangay Balanaken's Sitio Nimao after BIAF guerillas had been sighted on a security permiter established around that 6 hectare collection of rice paddies in Barangay Alonganen. As the BIAF responded by launching retaliattory strikes the wife of sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nuwas) was critically wounded during a mortar volley.
After that initial attack in July both sides took a step back from that bloody abyss and orally agreed to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner, despite the wounds inflicted on sub-Kumander Adzmie. That agreement held fast for a little more than two weeks. On August 6th Abu Nuwas led his men on an attack against Adzmie's men in their camp in Barangay Alonganen. Even before the shooting began that morning hundreds of families had began fleeing. Quickly joining them were families from the adjacent barangays Liong and Balanaken. The town's Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School has long served as the municipality's IDP, or Internally Displaced Persons centre. By night fall on August 6th the official IDP tally stood at 482 families, of which 190 came from Balakaken, 180 from Liong, and 112 from Alonganen. In the Philippines a "family" is assumed to include five people but that figure borders on useless since demographers make no allowances for cultural, religious or even regional differences. A "family in Luzon will on average contain much less people than a socio-economically disadvantaged Tribal family whose head of household practices polygamy and whose religion commands a high reproductive rate. Moreover, the figures offered only take into account the number of heads of household that have managed to undergo the official registration process. Most IDPs take succor in other households and a fair number, distrustful of the Government or fearing disease and other negative aspects found in the state IDP centres make the best of it alongside hiways and in isolated jungle clearings. The displaced people themselves, known as "Bakwit" in the local dialect have had their daily lives disrupted every couple of months since 1972 and yet we have politicians in Manila asking why Maguindanao is the poorest province in the nation. Go figure
The day, August 7th, intermittent firefights took place in Barangays Alonganen, Liong, Balanaken with IDPs fleeing from the adjacent municipality of Guindulungan, home to the BIFF's main camp, the former-BIAF camp Omar ibn Khattab on Perez Hill. The resident of Barangay Muslim had received word that the BIAF was considering a direct attack on the camp and the news caused widespread apprehension that very quickly devolved into sheer panic. The day's fighting ended at nightfall with a finall tally (including the initial clash the day before) of five BIAF KIAs, or Killed in Actions with one known wounded. BIFF made out slightly better with three KIAs.
On August 8th BIFF launched the first attack with a moderate salvo of mortar shells against BIAF positions in Barangays Alonganen, now devoid of all civilians with the entire population having fled and Barangay Balanaken, itself nearly a carbon copy with the rest of its residents fleeing during a lull between salvos.
August 9th saw the heaviest fighting yet since this latest round commenced on August 6th. Fighting began at 630AM with the BIAF initiating a firefight and continued unabated until 330PM. At 700PM fighting began once again and only ended right before 11PM. During the morning exchanges fighting did finally spread to Guindulungan's Barangay Muslim although not related to any BIAF tactical strike against the main BIFF camp on Perez Hill. Most of Barangay Muslim's population had already fled in the preceding days but the remaining residents fled as the combatants entered the barangay with BIFF guerillas attempting to implement a Blocking Force there to deal more than 100 re-inforcements from the BIAF's 105 Base Command, co-incidentally the old command of BIFF leader Kumander Ustadz Kato. The IDPs from Barangay Muslim made their way into the ajoining municipality of Talayan's Barangays Binangga North, Tambunan, and Katibpuan. Gunidulungan's Barangay Damablak then fled en masse, totally emptying the barangay with most villagers taking shelter in Talayan's Barangay Katibpuan as well, along with the IDPs from Barangay Muslim.
August 10th FINALLY saw the Government respond. In cases of intercine conflict within the BIAF, or in this case between the BIAF and its recent offshoot BIFF, the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines almost always takes a hands off approach. This isn't an absolute rule as in last year's BIAF 104 Base Command throwdown with the MNLF/BMA's newest faction, MMSC, or Mainland Mindanao State Committee on the Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao Provincial borders. In that imbroglio the AFP entered the fray AGAINST the BIAF, but then BIAF on BMA (Bangsamoro Army, armed wing of the MNLF) isn't exactly an intercine affair. The AFP's 40IB (Infantry Battalion) implemented Blocking Force positions along the riverfront of Midsayap, in North Cotabato Province.
Midsayap sits directly parallel to Datu Piang, across the Pulangi River. It is also home to a camp of the BIAF's 105 Base Command, the Base Command most likely to re-inforce the 106th despite a bit of anomosity between the two Base Commands (after all, this anomosity led to the recent creation of the 118 Base Command, an episode I covered in a "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011" entry). In addition PNP, or Philippine National Police's PRO-12, or Police Regional Office for Region 12 deployed its PSCs, or Public Saety Companies (aaaah, the Filipino penchant for acronyms, gotta' love it) in key entrances to all North Cotabato municipalities fronting the Pulangi River. Until August 10th the only AFP element involved was the 1st Mechanised Brigade (M 1st Bde), attached to 6ID (Infantry Division) from 1ID, tasked with aiding IDPs and providing security at the IDP centre at Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School.
The next day, August 11th, fighting finally spread across the river into North Cotabato Province's municipality of Midsayap when the predicted re-inforcement from the 105 Base Command began and their guerillas happened upon BIFF re-inforcements making their way into Maguindanao Province. Resident's of Midsayap's Barangay Damatulan fled as they witnessed BIAF guerillas from the 105 Base Command moving through their barangay en route. As night fell and fighting continued most residents living across the river in Puroks #4 and 5 in Guindulungan's Barangay Binangga North fled en masse with most IDPs ending up in that barangay's Purok #1.
On August 12th the AFP actually deployed non-lethal munitions as it dropped smoke in Datu Piang in an effort to separate both sides. On Mindanao smoke is used as a warning that should belligerents not heed the warning and cease and desist, the next munition will not be innocuous. The smoke did manage to soften the exhanges from incessant to sporadic but did not come close to shutting down the firefights raging in barangays Alonganen, Liong and Balanaken and just then spreading into Barangay Masigay. As fighting began in Barangay Masigay 170 of its families fled to Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School.
On the following day, August 13th fighting petered out shortly after re-commencing just after daybreak. Sub-Kumander Adzmie, leader of the BIAF forces in this nightmare finally paid heed to the MILF's Central Command directive issued on August 10th in which he was ordered to stand down "unless attacked." As for sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nuwas), he was under no such orders with Kumander Kato brusquely telling the media that IF the BIAF doesn't want trouble IT should NOT attack BIFF guerillas. Aaah, can't you just feel the love?
In early August of 2010 a clash took place in Datu Piang between sub-Kumander Ustadz Akas "Adzmie" Kasim of the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (the military wing of the MILF) and sub-Kumander Ustadz Abu Nuwas "Bayawak" Ibad Maniog of the BIAF's 104 Base Command (see my entry entilted "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second and Third Quarters of 2010"). Both men are natives of Datu Piang's Barangay Alonganen and in fact are related to one another as indeed are most villagers living in that barangay. At stake was a 6 hectare tract of arable land immediately adjacent to the Pulangi River (Rio Grande del Mindanao), situated directly on the border of Datu Piang's Barangays Alonganen and Liong and a stone's throw from the infamous Liguasan Marsh. The conflicting claims on the untitled tract first turned violent in 2009 but was largely ignored by the Philippine Government and world at large. After all, any armed conflict in Central Mindanao must automatically be connected to War of 2008, a larger conflict that continued unabated until July of 2009, or so goes the popular assumption.
The firefights lasted only as long as the rice harvest since most of that 6 hectare tract had been cultivated with rice. As soon as the paddy was plowed under life returned to normal, at least as "normal" as it ever gets in Mindanao. Just before New Year 2011 sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nawas) tendered his formal resignation to the MILF Central Committe and almost immediately afterward joined Kumander Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato's Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF. Fast forward to July 20th, 2011. BIFF's Chief of Staff, sub-Kumander Karialan Indong personaly led an attack on BIAF 106 Base Command positions in Barangay Balanaken's Sitio Nimao after BIAF guerillas had been sighted on a security permiter established around that 6 hectare collection of rice paddies in Barangay Alonganen. As the BIAF responded by launching retaliattory strikes the wife of sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nuwas) was critically wounded during a mortar volley.
After that initial attack in July both sides took a step back from that bloody abyss and orally agreed to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner, despite the wounds inflicted on sub-Kumander Adzmie. That agreement held fast for a little more than two weeks. On August 6th Abu Nuwas led his men on an attack against Adzmie's men in their camp in Barangay Alonganen. Even before the shooting began that morning hundreds of families had began fleeing. Quickly joining them were families from the adjacent barangays Liong and Balanaken. The town's Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School has long served as the municipality's IDP, or Internally Displaced Persons centre. By night fall on August 6th the official IDP tally stood at 482 families, of which 190 came from Balakaken, 180 from Liong, and 112 from Alonganen. In the Philippines a "family" is assumed to include five people but that figure borders on useless since demographers make no allowances for cultural, religious or even regional differences. A "family in Luzon will on average contain much less people than a socio-economically disadvantaged Tribal family whose head of household practices polygamy and whose religion commands a high reproductive rate. Moreover, the figures offered only take into account the number of heads of household that have managed to undergo the official registration process. Most IDPs take succor in other households and a fair number, distrustful of the Government or fearing disease and other negative aspects found in the state IDP centres make the best of it alongside hiways and in isolated jungle clearings. The displaced people themselves, known as "Bakwit" in the local dialect have had their daily lives disrupted every couple of months since 1972 and yet we have politicians in Manila asking why Maguindanao is the poorest province in the nation. Go figure
The day, August 7th, intermittent firefights took place in Barangays Alonganen, Liong, Balanaken with IDPs fleeing from the adjacent municipality of Guindulungan, home to the BIFF's main camp, the former-BIAF camp Omar ibn Khattab on Perez Hill. The resident of Barangay Muslim had received word that the BIAF was considering a direct attack on the camp and the news caused widespread apprehension that very quickly devolved into sheer panic. The day's fighting ended at nightfall with a finall tally (including the initial clash the day before) of five BIAF KIAs, or Killed in Actions with one known wounded. BIFF made out slightly better with three KIAs.
On August 8th BIFF launched the first attack with a moderate salvo of mortar shells against BIAF positions in Barangays Alonganen, now devoid of all civilians with the entire population having fled and Barangay Balanaken, itself nearly a carbon copy with the rest of its residents fleeing during a lull between salvos.
August 9th saw the heaviest fighting yet since this latest round commenced on August 6th. Fighting began at 630AM with the BIAF initiating a firefight and continued unabated until 330PM. At 700PM fighting began once again and only ended right before 11PM. During the morning exchanges fighting did finally spread to Guindulungan's Barangay Muslim although not related to any BIAF tactical strike against the main BIFF camp on Perez Hill. Most of Barangay Muslim's population had already fled in the preceding days but the remaining residents fled as the combatants entered the barangay with BIFF guerillas attempting to implement a Blocking Force there to deal more than 100 re-inforcements from the BIAF's 105 Base Command, co-incidentally the old command of BIFF leader Kumander Ustadz Kato. The IDPs from Barangay Muslim made their way into the ajoining municipality of Talayan's Barangays Binangga North, Tambunan, and Katibpuan. Gunidulungan's Barangay Damablak then fled en masse, totally emptying the barangay with most villagers taking shelter in Talayan's Barangay Katibpuan as well, along with the IDPs from Barangay Muslim.
August 10th FINALLY saw the Government respond. In cases of intercine conflict within the BIAF, or in this case between the BIAF and its recent offshoot BIFF, the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines almost always takes a hands off approach. This isn't an absolute rule as in last year's BIAF 104 Base Command throwdown with the MNLF/BMA's newest faction, MMSC, or Mainland Mindanao State Committee on the Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao Provincial borders. In that imbroglio the AFP entered the fray AGAINST the BIAF, but then BIAF on BMA (Bangsamoro Army, armed wing of the MNLF) isn't exactly an intercine affair. The AFP's 40IB (Infantry Battalion) implemented Blocking Force positions along the riverfront of Midsayap, in North Cotabato Province.
Midsayap sits directly parallel to Datu Piang, across the Pulangi River. It is also home to a camp of the BIAF's 105 Base Command, the Base Command most likely to re-inforce the 106th despite a bit of anomosity between the two Base Commands (after all, this anomosity led to the recent creation of the 118 Base Command, an episode I covered in a "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011" entry). In addition PNP, or Philippine National Police's PRO-12, or Police Regional Office for Region 12 deployed its PSCs, or Public Saety Companies (aaaah, the Filipino penchant for acronyms, gotta' love it) in key entrances to all North Cotabato municipalities fronting the Pulangi River. Until August 10th the only AFP element involved was the 1st Mechanised Brigade (M 1st Bde), attached to 6ID (Infantry Division) from 1ID, tasked with aiding IDPs and providing security at the IDP centre at Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School.
The next day, August 11th, fighting finally spread across the river into North Cotabato Province's municipality of Midsayap when the predicted re-inforcement from the 105 Base Command began and their guerillas happened upon BIFF re-inforcements making their way into Maguindanao Province. Resident's of Midsayap's Barangay Damatulan fled as they witnessed BIAF guerillas from the 105 Base Command moving through their barangay en route. As night fell and fighting continued most residents living across the river in Puroks #4 and 5 in Guindulungan's Barangay Binangga North fled en masse with most IDPs ending up in that barangay's Purok #1.
On August 12th the AFP actually deployed non-lethal munitions as it dropped smoke in Datu Piang in an effort to separate both sides. On Mindanao smoke is used as a warning that should belligerents not heed the warning and cease and desist, the next munition will not be innocuous. The smoke did manage to soften the exhanges from incessant to sporadic but did not come close to shutting down the firefights raging in barangays Alonganen, Liong and Balanaken and just then spreading into Barangay Masigay. As fighting began in Barangay Masigay 170 of its families fled to Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School.
On the following day, August 13th fighting petered out shortly after re-commencing just after daybreak. Sub-Kumander Adzmie, leader of the BIAF forces in this nightmare finally paid heed to the MILF's Central Command directive issued on August 10th in which he was ordered to stand down "unless attacked." As for sub-Kumander Bayawak (Abu Nuwas), he was under no such orders with Kumander Kato brusquely telling the media that IF the BIAF doesn't want trouble IT should NOT attack BIFF guerillas. Aaah, can't you just feel the love?
Monday, June 6, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part VI:Nico Sebastian
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:The Release of Soken Chew Mantigue and How it Plays Directly into the MILF-BIAF Infighting
At 430AM on Tuesday, May 24,2011 Asila"Kumander Gordon"Syafullah,the Commanding Officer of the BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,armed wing of the MILF) National Guard Base Command telephoned the MILF CCCH (Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities) Secretariat Chairman,Rashid Ladlasan to notify him that the BIAF had taken custody of Soken"Angelina"Chew Mantigue after handing over the still undisclosed ransom to"former"BIAF guerilla Boy Calvo.Chairman Ladiasan then quickly notified his GPH (Government of the Philippines) counterpart,Major General Carlos Sol and asked the General to rendevouz with 3 MILF representatives who would accompany him to retrieve the victim.By 530AM Major General Sol and his escorts had arrived at the riverside clearing in Barangay Taviran in the town of Kabutalan,Maguindanao Province to await Kumander Gordon and his man who were travelling overland from the release site in that municipality's Barangay Dadtumeg.Before too long the BIAF force emerged from the jungle and Major General Sol formally took custody of Ms.Mantigue from the BIAF.
Major General Sol then drove the shaken victim directly to 6th Infantry Division Headquarters at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang,Datu Odin Sinsuat in that same province,Maguindanao.It was in the Camp Siongco Hospital that Ms.Mantigue's grateful husband and children were able to finally relax a bit,knowing that their wife and mother had survived none the worse for the wear.
In follow up operations that morning the PNP (Philippine National Police) stumbled across some unhappy BIAF guerillas and a brief firefight ensued in which one police officer was critically wounded.Still,the day was hailed as a success by both the MILF/BIAF and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as well as the Government as a whole.The MILF claimed that Ms.Mantigue had been"rescued"by the BIAF after it had seized 3 BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) whom they then held hostage as bargaining chips.The BIFF of course is the new group of Islamic Insurgents led by the infamous Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato.Kato was the man single handedly responsible for starting the 2008 War (aka MoA-AD War,or Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain War) when he invaded and occupied 5 municipalities in North Cotabato Province.At the time Kato was the CO (Commanding Officer) of the BIAF's largest Base Command,the 105.
As the war wound down in the middle of 2009 the MILF negotiated a Ceasefire with the Government (GPH) and didn't bother consulting Kato.Then,in an effort to buy goodwill in a resumption of the MILF-GPH Peace Process the BIAF removed Kato from Command,replacing him with his much more moderate Second in Command,Zacarias Goma.The MILF then assigned Kato to their Shar'ia Court (Islamic Court) as a lowly legal aide.To add insult to injury they claimed it was a promotion.Kato formally resigned from the MILF/BIAF and took virtually the entire 105 Base Command with him.At the same time members of the BIAF 109 Command and members of the former Ampatuan CVO/CAFGU (Civilian Volunteer Organization/Citizen Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,Force Multiplication elements ubder the PNP and AFP respectively) joined forces with Kato's burgeoning guerilla force.
Despite this turn of events both the MILF/BIAF and BIFF have tried walking a very fine line between rejecting each other and re-integrating.The BIFF wear teeshirts emblazoned with their own initials,"BIFF" with"of the MILF"under it as if to portray itself as an MILF armed organisation.In late March of this year the MILF Central Committee issued a Resolution demanding that Kato remove the MILF initials as well as for the BIFF to stop claiming an association.On the other hand it has been stating publicly that Kato was still an MILF member and that they would welcome him and his men back into the fold should he ever decide to follow the dictates of the MILF/BIAF hierarchy.
While the MILF/BIAF would have no qualms about kidnapping members of KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) groups,it would not dare to directly oppose the BIFF.The BIAF is in shambles as I have noted in other recent MILF entries.Those guerillas not actually joining Kato usually sympathise with his direct pull no punches methodology.Likwise there has been a rash of defections to the MNLF,both the MNLF-Misuari as well as MNLF-EC15 (Executive Committee of 15,aka MNLF-Sema).In fact,it is the MNLF-EC15 that is directly responsible for the Mantigue KFR,as noted in my previous KFR entry for the Second Quarter of 2011.
The day after Ms.Mantigue was released,Wednesday,May 25,2011 the new governmental taskforce taking aim at Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs in that particular area went to the media with a strongly worded condemnation of both the Mantigue Family as well as invectives against other governmental entities obstensibly taking aim at the Tsinoy KFR problem.TF Kutawato,created by the Department of Justice to uncover local political clout attached to the main KFR Group responsible for the Cotabato City kidnappings says that the Mantigue Family had had CCTV (Closed Circuit TV,Security Cameras) footage clearly showing the identities of the 4 kidnappers posing as customers.After the men dragged Ms.Mantigue kicking and screaming into incognito the family quickly took the tape and gave it to their parish priest,worried that the highly connected kidnappers would come back if they turned it over to local authorities.The priest then took it upon himself to turn over the tape to PACER (Presidential Anti-Crime and Emergency Response).TF Kutawato maintains thatif they had been able to view the tape they would have been able to launch a rescue operation.As I noted in that afore mentioned entry on KFR,that is the last thing any intelligent person would want since Filipino Authorities have absolutely no finesse in hostage situations.
The 4 customers cum kidnappers:
1) Kumander Taylor Silongan
2) Sammy Tilaka
3) Kadaffy Guiamalon
4) Datukan Kalbo
The 4 were sub-contracted by Boy Calvo on behalf of Manyangkang Saguile,himself working for none other than MNLF-EC15 Chairman Muslimin Sema.Sema of course is ALSO the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City...ergo TF Kutawato.Ah what a tangeled web.
Major General Sol then drove the shaken victim directly to 6th Infantry Division Headquarters at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang,Datu Odin Sinsuat in that same province,Maguindanao.It was in the Camp Siongco Hospital that Ms.Mantigue's grateful husband and children were able to finally relax a bit,knowing that their wife and mother had survived none the worse for the wear.
In follow up operations that morning the PNP (Philippine National Police) stumbled across some unhappy BIAF guerillas and a brief firefight ensued in which one police officer was critically wounded.Still,the day was hailed as a success by both the MILF/BIAF and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as well as the Government as a whole.The MILF claimed that Ms.Mantigue had been"rescued"by the BIAF after it had seized 3 BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) whom they then held hostage as bargaining chips.The BIFF of course is the new group of Islamic Insurgents led by the infamous Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato.Kato was the man single handedly responsible for starting the 2008 War (aka MoA-AD War,or Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain War) when he invaded and occupied 5 municipalities in North Cotabato Province.At the time Kato was the CO (Commanding Officer) of the BIAF's largest Base Command,the 105.
As the war wound down in the middle of 2009 the MILF negotiated a Ceasefire with the Government (GPH) and didn't bother consulting Kato.Then,in an effort to buy goodwill in a resumption of the MILF-GPH Peace Process the BIAF removed Kato from Command,replacing him with his much more moderate Second in Command,Zacarias Goma.The MILF then assigned Kato to their Shar'ia Court (Islamic Court) as a lowly legal aide.To add insult to injury they claimed it was a promotion.Kato formally resigned from the MILF/BIAF and took virtually the entire 105 Base Command with him.At the same time members of the BIAF 109 Command and members of the former Ampatuan CVO/CAFGU (Civilian Volunteer Organization/Citizen Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,Force Multiplication elements ubder the PNP and AFP respectively) joined forces with Kato's burgeoning guerilla force.
Despite this turn of events both the MILF/BIAF and BIFF have tried walking a very fine line between rejecting each other and re-integrating.The BIFF wear teeshirts emblazoned with their own initials,"BIFF" with"of the MILF"under it as if to portray itself as an MILF armed organisation.In late March of this year the MILF Central Committee issued a Resolution demanding that Kato remove the MILF initials as well as for the BIFF to stop claiming an association.On the other hand it has been stating publicly that Kato was still an MILF member and that they would welcome him and his men back into the fold should he ever decide to follow the dictates of the MILF/BIAF hierarchy.
While the MILF/BIAF would have no qualms about kidnapping members of KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) groups,it would not dare to directly oppose the BIFF.The BIAF is in shambles as I have noted in other recent MILF entries.Those guerillas not actually joining Kato usually sympathise with his direct pull no punches methodology.Likwise there has been a rash of defections to the MNLF,both the MNLF-Misuari as well as MNLF-EC15 (Executive Committee of 15,aka MNLF-Sema).In fact,it is the MNLF-EC15 that is directly responsible for the Mantigue KFR,as noted in my previous KFR entry for the Second Quarter of 2011.
The day after Ms.Mantigue was released,Wednesday,May 25,2011 the new governmental taskforce taking aim at Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs in that particular area went to the media with a strongly worded condemnation of both the Mantigue Family as well as invectives against other governmental entities obstensibly taking aim at the Tsinoy KFR problem.TF Kutawato,created by the Department of Justice to uncover local political clout attached to the main KFR Group responsible for the Cotabato City kidnappings says that the Mantigue Family had had CCTV (Closed Circuit TV,Security Cameras) footage clearly showing the identities of the 4 kidnappers posing as customers.After the men dragged Ms.Mantigue kicking and screaming into incognito the family quickly took the tape and gave it to their parish priest,worried that the highly connected kidnappers would come back if they turned it over to local authorities.The priest then took it upon himself to turn over the tape to PACER (Presidential Anti-Crime and Emergency Response).TF Kutawato maintains thatif they had been able to view the tape they would have been able to launch a rescue operation.As I noted in that afore mentioned entry on KFR,that is the last thing any intelligent person would want since Filipino Authorities have absolutely no finesse in hostage situations.
The 4 customers cum kidnappers:
1) Kumander Taylor Silongan
2) Sammy Tilaka
3) Kadaffy Guiamalon
4) Datukan Kalbo
The 4 were sub-contracted by Boy Calvo on behalf of Manyangkang Saguile,himself working for none other than MNLF-EC15 Chairman Muslimin Sema.Sema of course is ALSO the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City...ergo TF Kutawato.Ah what a tangeled web.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Soken Chew Mantigue and Malaysian National Mohammad bin Saidin
On Saturday May 14,2011 Soken"Angelina"Chew Mantigue was going about her regular routine.Most of Angelina's days are just like any other,stocking shelves,doing the books and helping to wait on customers in her family's"Sam's Grocery Center,"long a fixture in North Upi's Barangay Nuro in Maguindanao Province.Most of the time the 54 year old woman found her life boring though that's not necessarily a bad thing given her experience in 2001.Like most Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) she and her family had weathered numerous threats,extortion attempts and even the occasional kidnapping.
In fact,in that 2001 incident Angelina had been grabbed by 4 gunmen.The men had tried to shove Angelina into a van at which point her bodyguards sprang into action and initiated a short but very bloody firefight.When the smoke cleared a few moments later 2 of her assailants lay dead with the other 2 laying critically wounded.Amazingly Angelina emerged unscathed from the affair.Notably,2001 was at the tail end of a terrible decade for area Tsinoy with 70 cases REPORTED KFRs in just the North Cotabato/Maguindanao Provincial border area.By 1998 the local Tsinoy business associations were threatening to pull out in one fall swoop.Throughout Southeast Asia Chinese minorities serve as the backbone of most local economies and in the Philippines this has always been especially so.
Though Chinese have been trading and settling here since time immemorial they have never fully assimilated.A good part of that relates to the country's colonial history.Most of the time the Spanish,who referred to the Chinese as"Sangley"in bastardised Spanish,forced them to live in tightly packed ghettos,restricted their forms of employment and so when these harsh strictures were finally relaxed the local Chinese continued reinforcing that here to fore externally imposed separate identity.Even today most Filipino cities have "Chinese Schools,"though nowadays the student bodies tend to be more Filipino than Chinese since these schools over whelmingly produce much higher achievers overall).
On Mindanao,and points south,Tsinoy tend to concentrate their business interests in retail outlets specialising in hardware and general purpose wares.However,they form the foundation of all local economies.In a population centre like Cotabato City the Tsinoy ARE the local retail economy,end of discussion.Should they pull out en masse the nation's poorest region would literally hit rock bottom.Therefore the deployment of a Marine battalion to Cotabato City in 1998,though mostly for show,satisfied Tsinoy demands.Still it was the 2000 War between the MILF and the Government that had the most positive results in terms of curtailing that spiraling KFR rate.Most KFR organisations in Mindanao are composed of BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) guerillas.
As an insurgent organisation the MILF/BIAF doesn't provide much in the way of financial security for its members.Certain BIAF Base Commands,or armed elements,almost completely fund themselves via KFR and the related extortion that so pervades every aspect of the local economy.The 113,114,104 and 102 Base Commands,which operate in the Zamboangan Peninsula,Basilan,Liguasan Marsh and Lanao del Sur respectively are neck deep in these activities.
In the 2001 incident the 4 gunmen belonged to the infamous Pentagon Group,now extinct (contrary to the ramblings of various ignorant PNP and Government spokespeople).I have discussed the Pentagon Group in other KFR entries,including one entitled,"The Resurrection of the Pentagon Group,"so for the sake of brevity I will merely offer that the group was founded by an ex-BIAF ("ex"according to the MILF but of course not in reality) "Kumander"(the generic label used by both the MNLF/BMA and MILF/BIAF to denote anyone of authority) named Tahir"Kumander Tigre"Alonto.Alonto,who had various other monikers,such as"Kuya Allan" (Elder Brother Allan),"Kumander Ronnie" and "Conto Alonto"was an extremely charismatic man who took a moderately entrenched industry like KFR and extortion and turned it into a genuine money machine.
When Alonto was killed his group splintered into several small highly competitive factions,albeit all of them moderately allied.It was this splintering along with the afore mentioned 2000 War that led to the steep decline on KFRs,not a deployment of a single Marine BLT (Battalion Landing Team,in this case MBLT-7).With time the strongest faction emerged as the local power to reckon with and so today the name that has replaced Alonto is Makyangkang Saguile.Saguile,48 years old is native of Talayan,a municipality in Maguindanao Province though he spends most of his time in GenSan (General Santos City) in Saragani Province.A former BIAF sub-Kumamder of the 105 Base Command he is now allied with the MNLF and often uses its Camp Bad'r in his hometown of Talayan as a staging ground,as well as a means of avoiding interdiction if the dogs are close behind.
According to various political agreements both MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA camps are off limits to both the AFP and the PNP.If someone is being chased and runs into a camp the most that can be done is to politely ask the camp's highest ranking man to turn him over.To my knowledge that has never happened,not even once.To ignore such agreements can can be to literally cause a major war as was the case in the 2003 Buliok Complex War.Ironically,the war began as an Anti-Pentagon Group tactical operation.
With the Government adamantly claiming that it had neutralised the KFR and extortion groups in 2002 many Tsinoy,like Angelina felt no need for heavily armed entourages and so things returned to normal,or what passes for normal in this part of the world.Fast forward to the present,Saturday,May 14th,2011.Angelina sat down at the cashier's table to wait on some customers.4 young men who had been posing as customers themselves quickly surrounded her and began dragging her out the door.Though she was kicking and screaming in what amounts to a downtown shopping district noone moved to help her.Shoved into a grey Mitsubishi Lancer the group quickly sped off down Rizal Boulevard towards the neighbouring municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Ditching the auto in North Upi's Barangay Mirab and setting it on fire,the group set off on foot for the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat when a motorcycle hidden in the marsh for this leg of their escape refused to start.Picking up their trail the soldiers in pursuit tried closing in but fell back after Angelina's captors initiated a firefight.Since losing sight of the group there have been reports that she is being held in a mountainous area above that same town,Datu Odin Sinsuat.Her brother,local attorney Roland Anwar Chew is handling ransom negotiations and is currently doing his best to whittle down the initial demand of P15 Million (~$310,000).
The latest"Natural Cure"craze has led a foreign national to the Southern Philippines and into captivity.50 year old Mohammad Nasaruddin bin Saidin of Sungai Buloh,Selangor a suburb of Kuala Lampur arrived on Jolo Island in Sulu Province in late April,2011 with his friend Abdulgafar bin Akkirulla.Akkirulla,a dual Malaysian/Philippine citizen raised in Malaysia had assured bin Saidin that he could lead him to a low-cost supplier of Spotted Geckos.Known in the Philippines as"Tukos"due to their distinctive call the lizard is quite common here,albeit not nearly as common as its much smaller cousins that are found on most any any interior wall.As common as it certainly is,Philippine Law protects the species due to its moderate popularity in the West as a pet.
Why all the fuss?Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine have long used the Tuko's dried innards as panacea but within the last year the creature has become known outside of the Chinese Community as a fix-all curative.With people claiming it can cure cancer or even HIV-AIDs its price has skyrocketed.The smallest lizards are selling in Mindanao for P300 (~$6.25) and one large specimen tipping the cales at 425 grammes managed to fetch a whopping P20 Million in Kuala Lampur (~$420,000).With ever increasing demand throughout the Pacific Rim enterprising people are now travelling far afield into places they might otherwise never even consider visiting.Mr.bin Saidin was himself a truck driver who had long dreamed of a better life.His wife Mazlina Muhamad [sic],a seller of Kuih (a steamed gelatinous rice confection popular in Southern China,Singapore and parts of Malaysia) helped bankroll what was to be bin Saidin's first buying trip.He hoped to tap into an under utilised market,though he probably did so without bothering to consider just why noone else uses the Southern Philippines.
Mr.bin Akkirulla and Mr.bin Saidin arrived in Jolo and quickly secured lodging in the home of Benhar Maadilin in Sitio Boutan State,Barangay Kajatian,in the town of Indanan.Akkirulla soon left to points unknown leaving bin Saidin to his lizard hunting and dreams of striking it rich.As is so often the case with foreign treasure hunters (albeit for very different types of treasure),bin Saidin's judgement was over ridden by his desire for profit and before too long everyone knew about the strange Malaysian who was offering huge sums of money for a commonly found lizard.Indanan being an ASG (Abbu Sayyaf Group) bailiwick the gossip soon led to trouble.
Just after midnite on May 7th a group of 10 gunmen kicked in the door of the Maadilin family home and grabbed bin Saidin,his 3 cellphones along with his bankbook and passport before frog marching him into the jungle and into incognito.Soon the motley group was dragging a shocked bin Saidin uphill through Barangay Upper Buansa.At the end of that uphill barangay the terrain soon becomes very steep as it lies on the side of Bud Daho,an extinct volcano best known as the site of a memourable engagement between Datu Jakiri and the US Army sent to neutralise him in March of 1906.Just 2 days after the kidnapping ASG made its opening gambit with a demand of P10 Million (~$210,000).Not long after the group made direct contact with their captive's family in Malaysia.
Apparently ASG was operating on instinct as it so often does.The poor truck driver they had snatched was NOT a big businessman in the blackmarket wildlife trade.bin Saidin was only just beginning to learn about what Malaysians call,"Cicak Tokek,"or the"Gecko Trade."Far from being a multi-millionaire he relied on Western Union transmittals from his wife's extremely meagre earnings to keep himself in boiled rice and bottled water.As bad as things might be for Mr.bin Saidin,things were surely a lot worse for his distressed wife Mazlina.She received word that her husband would be beheaded on May 16th unless she made a down payment on their latest demand of P5 Million (~$100,000).The sum might as well have been P100 Million since she was barely able to feed their 2 young children.The deadline came and went with no word from the kidnappers.As Ms.Mohamed nervously awaited word about the deadline and the fate of her husband the Chief of the Indanan MPO (Municipal Police Office) received an illuminating call.The Malaysian Consul General in Manila had just phoned Chief of Police,Inspector Mohammad Khan Kamlon with news that ASG had re-contacted the victim's wife.The kidnappers had lowered their demand to a relatively paltry P8 Million (~$166,000),with a downpayment required to the effect of P5 Million (~$125,000).
In the days since that call on May 16th Mr,bin Saidin has been sighted once again down slope from Bud Daho,entering Barangay Buansa,still in Indanan.Likewise his captors have ben identified as a crew working under sub-Kumander Alhansy Misaya,who had been encamped in Barangay Buansa's Sitio Bunga.
In fact,in that 2001 incident Angelina had been grabbed by 4 gunmen.The men had tried to shove Angelina into a van at which point her bodyguards sprang into action and initiated a short but very bloody firefight.When the smoke cleared a few moments later 2 of her assailants lay dead with the other 2 laying critically wounded.Amazingly Angelina emerged unscathed from the affair.Notably,2001 was at the tail end of a terrible decade for area Tsinoy with 70 cases REPORTED KFRs in just the North Cotabato/Maguindanao Provincial border area.By 1998 the local Tsinoy business associations were threatening to pull out in one fall swoop.Throughout Southeast Asia Chinese minorities serve as the backbone of most local economies and in the Philippines this has always been especially so.
Though Chinese have been trading and settling here since time immemorial they have never fully assimilated.A good part of that relates to the country's colonial history.Most of the time the Spanish,who referred to the Chinese as"Sangley"in bastardised Spanish,forced them to live in tightly packed ghettos,restricted their forms of employment and so when these harsh strictures were finally relaxed the local Chinese continued reinforcing that here to fore externally imposed separate identity.Even today most Filipino cities have "Chinese Schools,"though nowadays the student bodies tend to be more Filipino than Chinese since these schools over whelmingly produce much higher achievers overall).
On Mindanao,and points south,Tsinoy tend to concentrate their business interests in retail outlets specialising in hardware and general purpose wares.However,they form the foundation of all local economies.In a population centre like Cotabato City the Tsinoy ARE the local retail economy,end of discussion.Should they pull out en masse the nation's poorest region would literally hit rock bottom.Therefore the deployment of a Marine battalion to Cotabato City in 1998,though mostly for show,satisfied Tsinoy demands.Still it was the 2000 War between the MILF and the Government that had the most positive results in terms of curtailing that spiraling KFR rate.Most KFR organisations in Mindanao are composed of BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) guerillas.
As an insurgent organisation the MILF/BIAF doesn't provide much in the way of financial security for its members.Certain BIAF Base Commands,or armed elements,almost completely fund themselves via KFR and the related extortion that so pervades every aspect of the local economy.The 113,114,104 and 102 Base Commands,which operate in the Zamboangan Peninsula,Basilan,Liguasan Marsh and Lanao del Sur respectively are neck deep in these activities.
In the 2001 incident the 4 gunmen belonged to the infamous Pentagon Group,now extinct (contrary to the ramblings of various ignorant PNP and Government spokespeople).I have discussed the Pentagon Group in other KFR entries,including one entitled,"The Resurrection of the Pentagon Group,"so for the sake of brevity I will merely offer that the group was founded by an ex-BIAF ("ex"according to the MILF but of course not in reality) "Kumander"(the generic label used by both the MNLF/BMA and MILF/BIAF to denote anyone of authority) named Tahir"Kumander Tigre"Alonto.Alonto,who had various other monikers,such as"Kuya Allan" (Elder Brother Allan),"Kumander Ronnie" and "Conto Alonto"was an extremely charismatic man who took a moderately entrenched industry like KFR and extortion and turned it into a genuine money machine.
When Alonto was killed his group splintered into several small highly competitive factions,albeit all of them moderately allied.It was this splintering along with the afore mentioned 2000 War that led to the steep decline on KFRs,not a deployment of a single Marine BLT (Battalion Landing Team,in this case MBLT-7).With time the strongest faction emerged as the local power to reckon with and so today the name that has replaced Alonto is Makyangkang Saguile.Saguile,48 years old is native of Talayan,a municipality in Maguindanao Province though he spends most of his time in GenSan (General Santos City) in Saragani Province.A former BIAF sub-Kumamder of the 105 Base Command he is now allied with the MNLF and often uses its Camp Bad'r in his hometown of Talayan as a staging ground,as well as a means of avoiding interdiction if the dogs are close behind.
According to various political agreements both MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA camps are off limits to both the AFP and the PNP.If someone is being chased and runs into a camp the most that can be done is to politely ask the camp's highest ranking man to turn him over.To my knowledge that has never happened,not even once.To ignore such agreements can can be to literally cause a major war as was the case in the 2003 Buliok Complex War.Ironically,the war began as an Anti-Pentagon Group tactical operation.
With the Government adamantly claiming that it had neutralised the KFR and extortion groups in 2002 many Tsinoy,like Angelina felt no need for heavily armed entourages and so things returned to normal,or what passes for normal in this part of the world.Fast forward to the present,Saturday,May 14th,2011.Angelina sat down at the cashier's table to wait on some customers.4 young men who had been posing as customers themselves quickly surrounded her and began dragging her out the door.Though she was kicking and screaming in what amounts to a downtown shopping district noone moved to help her.Shoved into a grey Mitsubishi Lancer the group quickly sped off down Rizal Boulevard towards the neighbouring municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Ditching the auto in North Upi's Barangay Mirab and setting it on fire,the group set off on foot for the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat when a motorcycle hidden in the marsh for this leg of their escape refused to start.Picking up their trail the soldiers in pursuit tried closing in but fell back after Angelina's captors initiated a firefight.Since losing sight of the group there have been reports that she is being held in a mountainous area above that same town,Datu Odin Sinsuat.Her brother,local attorney Roland Anwar Chew is handling ransom negotiations and is currently doing his best to whittle down the initial demand of P15 Million (~$310,000).
The latest"Natural Cure"craze has led a foreign national to the Southern Philippines and into captivity.50 year old Mohammad Nasaruddin bin Saidin of Sungai Buloh,Selangor a suburb of Kuala Lampur arrived on Jolo Island in Sulu Province in late April,2011 with his friend Abdulgafar bin Akkirulla.Akkirulla,a dual Malaysian/Philippine citizen raised in Malaysia had assured bin Saidin that he could lead him to a low-cost supplier of Spotted Geckos.Known in the Philippines as"Tukos"due to their distinctive call the lizard is quite common here,albeit not nearly as common as its much smaller cousins that are found on most any any interior wall.As common as it certainly is,Philippine Law protects the species due to its moderate popularity in the West as a pet.
Why all the fuss?Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine have long used the Tuko's dried innards as panacea but within the last year the creature has become known outside of the Chinese Community as a fix-all curative.With people claiming it can cure cancer or even HIV-AIDs its price has skyrocketed.The smallest lizards are selling in Mindanao for P300 (~$6.25) and one large specimen tipping the cales at 425 grammes managed to fetch a whopping P20 Million in Kuala Lampur (~$420,000).With ever increasing demand throughout the Pacific Rim enterprising people are now travelling far afield into places they might otherwise never even consider visiting.Mr.bin Saidin was himself a truck driver who had long dreamed of a better life.His wife Mazlina Muhamad [sic],a seller of Kuih (a steamed gelatinous rice confection popular in Southern China,Singapore and parts of Malaysia) helped bankroll what was to be bin Saidin's first buying trip.He hoped to tap into an under utilised market,though he probably did so without bothering to consider just why noone else uses the Southern Philippines.
Mr.bin Akkirulla and Mr.bin Saidin arrived in Jolo and quickly secured lodging in the home of Benhar Maadilin in Sitio Boutan State,Barangay Kajatian,in the town of Indanan.Akkirulla soon left to points unknown leaving bin Saidin to his lizard hunting and dreams of striking it rich.As is so often the case with foreign treasure hunters (albeit for very different types of treasure),bin Saidin's judgement was over ridden by his desire for profit and before too long everyone knew about the strange Malaysian who was offering huge sums of money for a commonly found lizard.Indanan being an ASG (Abbu Sayyaf Group) bailiwick the gossip soon led to trouble.
Just after midnite on May 7th a group of 10 gunmen kicked in the door of the Maadilin family home and grabbed bin Saidin,his 3 cellphones along with his bankbook and passport before frog marching him into the jungle and into incognito.Soon the motley group was dragging a shocked bin Saidin uphill through Barangay Upper Buansa.At the end of that uphill barangay the terrain soon becomes very steep as it lies on the side of Bud Daho,an extinct volcano best known as the site of a memourable engagement between Datu Jakiri and the US Army sent to neutralise him in March of 1906.Just 2 days after the kidnapping ASG made its opening gambit with a demand of P10 Million (~$210,000).Not long after the group made direct contact with their captive's family in Malaysia.
Apparently ASG was operating on instinct as it so often does.The poor truck driver they had snatched was NOT a big businessman in the blackmarket wildlife trade.bin Saidin was only just beginning to learn about what Malaysians call,"Cicak Tokek,"or the"Gecko Trade."Far from being a multi-millionaire he relied on Western Union transmittals from his wife's extremely meagre earnings to keep himself in boiled rice and bottled water.As bad as things might be for Mr.bin Saidin,things were surely a lot worse for his distressed wife Mazlina.She received word that her husband would be beheaded on May 16th unless she made a down payment on their latest demand of P5 Million (~$100,000).The sum might as well have been P100 Million since she was barely able to feed their 2 young children.The deadline came and went with no word from the kidnappers.As Ms.Mohamed nervously awaited word about the deadline and the fate of her husband the Chief of the Indanan MPO (Municipal Police Office) received an illuminating call.The Malaysian Consul General in Manila had just phoned Chief of Police,Inspector Mohammad Khan Kamlon with news that ASG had re-contacted the victim's wife.The kidnappers had lowered their demand to a relatively paltry P8 Million (~$166,000),with a downpayment required to the effect of P5 Million (~$125,000).
In the days since that call on May 16th Mr,bin Saidin has been sighted once again down slope from Bud Daho,entering Barangay Buansa,still in Indanan.Likewise his captors have ben identified as a crew working under sub-Kumander Alhansy Misaya,who had been encamped in Barangay Buansa's Sitio Bunga.
Monday, May 2, 2011
GPH-MILF Peace Process,First Quarter of 2011,Part II:21st Round of Exploratory Talks
The 21st Round of the Exploratory Talks were held in the Imperial Sheraton Hotel,Kuala Lampur,Malaysia on April 27 and April 28,2011.Having originally been schedualed for the 29th and 30th of March but delayed per MILF request.The talks opened at 930AM with a Closed Door Executive Session with only the Chairmen of both Panels and 1 Panel Member each.The MILF Chairman Mohagher Iqbal was accompanied by Datu Michael O.Mastura.GPH Chairman Mario Victor"Marvic"Leonen was with Panel Member Prof.Miriam Coronel Ferrer.Joining them in the hotel's Penang Room was embattled Facilitator Datuk Othman bin 'Abd Razak who was accompanied by his replacement (yep,they finally mamaged to get the spy out of the process),Tengku Dato' Abd' Ghafar bin Tengku Mohammad.Ghafar,as he is known in shorthand,actually predates Razak's own involvement in the Talks.Back in the Winter of 2001 as new President Gloria M.Arroyo was desperately seeking Malaysian intervention to re-ignite the failed GHP-MILF Peace Process Ghafar had been delegated by his government to liason with MILF founder Chairman Hashim Salamat.In fact,Ghafar made more than 1 trip to Buliok Complex,Salamat's new headquarters after the fall of Camp Abubakar in the 2000 War.
Razak informally introduced his replacement and after a few brief exchanges on the schedule of the two day long Talks they all left the room at 1109AM.At 1112AM the Full Panels convened along with the ICG (International Contact Group).ICG is composed of foreign governmental representatives and NGO delegates who participate in the Peace Process as Observers.In Closed Door Session (Session I) the Formal Introduction of Ghafar took place and the 1st Session adjourned for Lunch at 1159AM.Razak left the hotel at 1230PM and so ends his 9 years as Facilitator.
At 2PM Session II began with both Panels' Chairmen offering their Opening Remarks,no suprises there.Both read for 3 pages of notes though as always Iqbal took longer.
The 2nd Day's proceedings,Session III began at 930AM with an"Update"on the 25 MILF/BIAF members incarcerated by the Philippine Government.The list is considerably longer but the MILF has had to pick and choose after realising there was no way that all its members were going to be released for jail.The highest ranking member among the 25 is Central Committee member Eduard"Abraham Yap Alonto"Guerra.
At 10AM the AFP's (Armed Forces of the Philippines) Advisor to the GPH Peace Panel,Brigadier General Restituto Aguilar and his compatriot Major General Carlos Sol,GPH Chairperson of the CCCH (Committee on Cessation of Hostilities) Secretariat were ushered into the Session to offer their opinions on Kumander Kato.Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato is the former Commanding Officer of the BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,MILF's military arm) 105 Base Command.After single handedly igniting the 2008 War with his invasion of the Ilonggo Triangle in North Cotabato Province,Kato and the MILF Central Committee turned on each other.In early 2010 Kato was relieved of his Command and transferred to the MILF Shari'a Court (Islamic Court) as a Legal Aide.Naturally this angered Kato and so he threw down the gauntlet.In March of 2010 he founded an entirely new,much more radical insurgency group,"BIFF."BIFF,or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,have remained low key thus far but are very well armed and are roughly 600 strong.600 is more than any single BIAF Base Command.
GPH Panel Chairman Marvic Leonen pushed aggressively for a quantification of the issue from his MILF counterpart but all Iqbal would do is offer that while they are doing their best to rein Kato in they still consider him part of the apparattus and therefore consider it an entirely internal matter.In the words of Iqbal;"Don't worry about Kato,leave him to us."Yes Iqbal,because until now you have done a great job at controlling Kato,or anyone in the BIAF really.Session III ended at 1039AM with a coffee break.Resuming at 1100AM the Talks focused on AHJAG,the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group.AHJAG was created very early on in the Peace Process,in May of 2002,though not implemented until December,2004.Its sole purpose is to provide a platform for interaction and co-operating on the criminality within the MILF/BIAF AOR (Area of Responsibility,i.e."Area in which the MILF has a determined presence").Specifically it aims to curtail the rampant KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) that innundates most any Base Command AOR.To realise the importance of this little discussed entity,consider that the 2003 Buliok Complex War took place because an AFP anti-KFR operation came a tad bit too close to a BIAF Base Command.Had the MILF/BIAF and AFP been interacting as they were supposed to have been doing (the AHJAG Agreement was already 14 months old at that point but had never been implemented) the conflict almost certainly would have never taken place.
AHJAG's re-activation had been settled during the previous Round,Round 20 which took place on the 9th and 10th of February,and which gave AHJAG a brand new 12 month mandate to have begun on March 1,2011.At the MILF's request this was delayed until April 1.On April 19,2011 the entity had its first conclave under this new mandate.Held at the Ritz Hotel's Garden Oases [sic] in Davao City.AHJAG's HQ element,or"Core,"has 8 members.4 from the Government and 4 from the MILF/BIAF with 1 from each side serving as Co-Chairman.
Next on the agenda of course was the infamous 2 hour lunch,from 12PM to 2PM.With only 48 precious hours to try and save the lives of many thousands of their terrorised countrymen and women the noble Panelists stuffed their faces on the Malaysian tab.Returning at 2PM for the 4th and final Session,Closed Door,the group got into an Update on the status of IMT-5.The IMT,or International Monitoring Team is composed of members from Malaysia,which leads it,along with Brunei,Libya,Japan,and this year the EU and Norway.The last 2 will be serving on their first IMT Mission.I will delve into all the ins and outs of both the IMT AND AHJAG in entries all their own.
The Panel then devoted the better part of 4 hours clarifying and re-iterating the text of the Revised Comprehensive Compact Draft.Even the spelling was dissected.Close to 4PM Datu Michael O.Mastura blew his cool,which he does nearly every Round.Screaming,he accused the GPH Peace Panel of"nitpicking."Surely an attorney would understand just how vulnerable documents are to misinterpretation.Surely an ex-Constitutional Delegate would acknowledge the gravity of such proceedings.Surely an ex-Congressman would know fully well that every"t"needs to be crossed and every"I"needs to have its dot.Talk about immaturity,petulance and just plain gauche,that my friends is Datu Mike.
The meeting took a"time out"to let Mastura's blood pressure drop and resumed proceedings after almost 15 minutes.From that point on it was relatively smooth sailing.Finishing the"nitpicking"everyone leaving the Penang Room at 645PM that evening was in a jubilant mood.The GPH Panel has agreed to relegate Kumander Kato and BIFF to an internal MILF matter.AHJAG and IMT went as expected and merely were Progress Reviews.The GPH has also agreed to turnover its own Revised Comprehensive Compact Draft having registered the MILF's current vision on the those vital issues.The 2 sides have tenatively scheduled the 22nd Round for April 28 and 29th,again in Kuala Lampur.
Razak informally introduced his replacement and after a few brief exchanges on the schedule of the two day long Talks they all left the room at 1109AM.At 1112AM the Full Panels convened along with the ICG (International Contact Group).ICG is composed of foreign governmental representatives and NGO delegates who participate in the Peace Process as Observers.In Closed Door Session (Session I) the Formal Introduction of Ghafar took place and the 1st Session adjourned for Lunch at 1159AM.Razak left the hotel at 1230PM and so ends his 9 years as Facilitator.
At 2PM Session II began with both Panels' Chairmen offering their Opening Remarks,no suprises there.Both read for 3 pages of notes though as always Iqbal took longer.
The 2nd Day's proceedings,Session III began at 930AM with an"Update"on the 25 MILF/BIAF members incarcerated by the Philippine Government.The list is considerably longer but the MILF has had to pick and choose after realising there was no way that all its members were going to be released for jail.The highest ranking member among the 25 is Central Committee member Eduard"Abraham Yap Alonto"Guerra.
At 10AM the AFP's (Armed Forces of the Philippines) Advisor to the GPH Peace Panel,Brigadier General Restituto Aguilar and his compatriot Major General Carlos Sol,GPH Chairperson of the CCCH (Committee on Cessation of Hostilities) Secretariat were ushered into the Session to offer their opinions on Kumander Kato.Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato is the former Commanding Officer of the BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,MILF's military arm) 105 Base Command.After single handedly igniting the 2008 War with his invasion of the Ilonggo Triangle in North Cotabato Province,Kato and the MILF Central Committee turned on each other.In early 2010 Kato was relieved of his Command and transferred to the MILF Shari'a Court (Islamic Court) as a Legal Aide.Naturally this angered Kato and so he threw down the gauntlet.In March of 2010 he founded an entirely new,much more radical insurgency group,"BIFF."BIFF,or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,have remained low key thus far but are very well armed and are roughly 600 strong.600 is more than any single BIAF Base Command.
GPH Panel Chairman Marvic Leonen pushed aggressively for a quantification of the issue from his MILF counterpart but all Iqbal would do is offer that while they are doing their best to rein Kato in they still consider him part of the apparattus and therefore consider it an entirely internal matter.In the words of Iqbal;"Don't worry about Kato,leave him to us."Yes Iqbal,because until now you have done a great job at controlling Kato,or anyone in the BIAF really.Session III ended at 1039AM with a coffee break.Resuming at 1100AM the Talks focused on AHJAG,the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group.AHJAG was created very early on in the Peace Process,in May of 2002,though not implemented until December,2004.Its sole purpose is to provide a platform for interaction and co-operating on the criminality within the MILF/BIAF AOR (Area of Responsibility,i.e."Area in which the MILF has a determined presence").Specifically it aims to curtail the rampant KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) that innundates most any Base Command AOR.To realise the importance of this little discussed entity,consider that the 2003 Buliok Complex War took place because an AFP anti-KFR operation came a tad bit too close to a BIAF Base Command.Had the MILF/BIAF and AFP been interacting as they were supposed to have been doing (the AHJAG Agreement was already 14 months old at that point but had never been implemented) the conflict almost certainly would have never taken place.
AHJAG's re-activation had been settled during the previous Round,Round 20 which took place on the 9th and 10th of February,and which gave AHJAG a brand new 12 month mandate to have begun on March 1,2011.At the MILF's request this was delayed until April 1.On April 19,2011 the entity had its first conclave under this new mandate.Held at the Ritz Hotel's Garden Oases [sic] in Davao City.AHJAG's HQ element,or"Core,"has 8 members.4 from the Government and 4 from the MILF/BIAF with 1 from each side serving as Co-Chairman.
Next on the agenda of course was the infamous 2 hour lunch,from 12PM to 2PM.With only 48 precious hours to try and save the lives of many thousands of their terrorised countrymen and women the noble Panelists stuffed their faces on the Malaysian tab.Returning at 2PM for the 4th and final Session,Closed Door,the group got into an Update on the status of IMT-5.The IMT,or International Monitoring Team is composed of members from Malaysia,which leads it,along with Brunei,Libya,Japan,and this year the EU and Norway.The last 2 will be serving on their first IMT Mission.I will delve into all the ins and outs of both the IMT AND AHJAG in entries all their own.
The Panel then devoted the better part of 4 hours clarifying and re-iterating the text of the Revised Comprehensive Compact Draft.Even the spelling was dissected.Close to 4PM Datu Michael O.Mastura blew his cool,which he does nearly every Round.Screaming,he accused the GPH Peace Panel of"nitpicking."Surely an attorney would understand just how vulnerable documents are to misinterpretation.Surely an ex-Constitutional Delegate would acknowledge the gravity of such proceedings.Surely an ex-Congressman would know fully well that every"t"needs to be crossed and every"I"needs to have its dot.Talk about immaturity,petulance and just plain gauche,that my friends is Datu Mike.
The meeting took a"time out"to let Mastura's blood pressure drop and resumed proceedings after almost 15 minutes.From that point on it was relatively smooth sailing.Finishing the"nitpicking"everyone leaving the Penang Room at 645PM that evening was in a jubilant mood.The GPH Panel has agreed to relegate Kumander Kato and BIFF to an internal MILF matter.AHJAG and IMT went as expected and merely were Progress Reviews.The GPH has also agreed to turnover its own Revised Comprehensive Compact Draft having registered the MILF's current vision on the those vital issues.The 2 sides have tenatively scheduled the 22nd Round for April 28 and 29th,again in Kuala Lampur.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
GPH-MILF Peace Process,Second Quarter of 2011: MILF's Davao Consultations
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Friday, April 22, 2011
MILF Armed Engagements, Second Quarter of 2011, 109 Base Command vs Buaya sa Lanao
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Thursday, April 21, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part III: American Citizen Milton Strowell Taylor
Milton "Sam" Strowell Taylor, a 63 year old American retiree from Ohio was dreaming of a better life when he arrived on Mindanao in early December, 2010. Like a suprisingly large number of American vistors to the island Mr.Taylor came in search of...buried treasure. Beginning in the very late 1960s enterprising con artists and people of questionable character began manufacturing stories usually centering on buried Japanese Gold.
The usual spiel is that a horde of "Yamashita's Gold" has been found. General Tomoyuki"Tiger of Malaya"Yamashita raped and pillaged all over Southeast Asia before shipping all the gold and jewels he had "confiscated" to Manila by way of Singapore. Once in the Philippines the war took a turn for the worse and so as Yamashita began retreating ahead of Allied troops he began depositing cachets in out of the way places, for retrieval in better times. Unfotunately for the General, Japan got its as* handed to them and Yamashita was captured. Worse still, he was branded a War Criminal (I hate when that happens) and was put on trial. Predictably General Yamashita was found guilty and on February 23, 1946 he was executed at Los Banos Prison Camp in Metro Manila.
While Mindanao WAS occupied, AND brutalised, by the Japanese during WWII, Yamashita never touched its shores. His legendary fighting retreat took place in Luzon. This is well worth mentioning because Yamashita is the name most often attached to supposed cachets of gold bullion, silver ingots and nickel babbits that enterprising swindlers claim to have discovered. An interesting riff on the theme is an American payroll in the form of Bearer Bonds or T-Notes, en route to USAFE guerilla forces on the island, crashed into an interior mountainside. There the plane and its contents sat undisturbed in the primeval rainforest until its latent discovery by primitive tribesmen with no concept of money, or modern concerns. Personally I find the latter story more believable and therefore I am a bit confused as to why such scammers are perpetually recycling the "gold bullion" nonsense as opposed to the "payroll" tale.
It is believed that the dynamic began on Luzon, indeed the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos claimed to have actually located Yamashita's treasure (giving rise to another Urban Legend, "Marcos' Gold." However THIS claim has been largely disproved and rationalised as an alibi for the vast fortune Marcos squirreled away. A fitting sidenote to these Luzon-centric tales is that almost always they involve Negrito Tribesmen. Originally the Negritos were mostly innocent actors, manipulated and duped themselves into portraying the "discovers" of whatever treasure was being peddled. Before long the Negritos themselves wised up and soon negated the role of lowlander middlemen and brokers, directly controlling the scam. I find that information gratifying on a certain level because if any one group should profit from the misery of whitemen it should be those whose land has been stolen BY whites (and in this case EVERYONE BUT NEGRITOS THEMSELVES) and who until the present live so far below the poverty line as to be virtually invisible. Don't get me wrong, I think theft is reprehensible EVEN IF it is entirely driven by the greed of the victim. It is just that I can't help admiring an iota of poetic justice..,
On Mindanao the usual scam involves fake gold ingots. In a very amateurish fashion the thieves take thinly gold plated bars, usually with lead cores, and then pass them off to naïve treasure hunters. To understand how gullible victims are, as heavy as lead may be, it is not nearly as heavy as actual gold. To show it in an even more ridiculous fashion, one recent scam used gold plated aluminum ingots! Aluminum is many more times lighter than steel, which is itself STILL three times as light as pure gold! Yet, after a scratch test which always registers positive for gold, we see person, after person, after person getting conned out of their money.
Just a few weeks ago, on February 28, 2011 a couple in Davao City were lured into such a scam. Despicably it was the wife's own aunt who led them like lambs to the slaughter. Florentino and Mailyn Capuyan allowed themselves to stupidly follow the advice of Marilyn's aunt, Erlinda P.Fernandez. Fernandez knew that the couple were looking into investing their savings and so arranged for the them to get in on a "great deal." After a quick phone call by Marilyn's salivating auntie they were given an address and told to immediately proceed to the home of Inday Mansalita. Ms.Mansalita, a Lumad (member of a Hilltribe, usually Animist) was "brokering" the cachet "discovered by fellow Lumads. Probably trebling with excitement...AND GREED, the couple wasted no time in driving to Malibog District on the outskirts of Davao City and found the Mansalita home.
Having agreed, amazingly on the phone, to buy 1 ingot and a gold Buddha statue for P1.7M (roughly 33,000 US) Florentino intelligenty asked to test the goods before handing over the paperbag full of pesos. When he picked up the ingot, which was manufactured out of an aluminum core, he realised it wasn't genuine (gee, it FINALLY occurred to him) and refused to fork over six times the average annual Mindanowan salary. At that point Inday's 7 male friends popped out with bolos (machetes) and explained that IF the couple didn't want to buy the ingot and statue, that was their perogative. However, their money was staying. To add insult to injury Marilyn had her P6,000 watch, P32,000 worth of jewlery and her P2,500 cellphone taken as well. At least they lived to tell about it, and to charge all the players including Auntie Erlinda.
In kidnap victim Milton Strowell Taylor's case, he was spending months online, chatting up the bottom feeders lurking around treasure hunting websites. These sites are full of con artists and the fish they fry. One person spending a lot of time talking to Mr.Taylor was a man from Lanao del Norte Province. Finally taking the plunge this past December, 2010, Mr.Taylor flew into Cagayan del Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province, just across the border from Lanao del Norte. Checking into room number 604 at a dive called "Lamar Inn," on the corner of Velez and JR Borja Streets, Mr.Taylor soon did his best to lose his life savings in record breaking time.
Registering as "Sam Taylor" he would spend his days meeting chatmates off of treasure hunting websites, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. On Janurary 12, 2011 he met his "friend" from Lanao del Norte in front of a food stall near Divisoria Mall. The young man who presented himself was in the company of a second man whom he identified as a family member who would be driving them to a promising site. Innocently the very gullible Mr.Taylor joined his 2 new associates for a ride to what he believed would be the municipality of Opol in that same province, Misamis Oriental. Imagine his suprise then when the SUV pulled into the parking lot of a mall in Iligan City, in Lanao del Norte Province. Imagine how much more suprised Mr.Taylor was when told that they would now have to switch vehicles...and oooops, "here's a blindfold to protect my "treasure's" location."
Fast forward to February 11. Mr.Taylor's loving wife back in Ohio notified the US Embassy in Manilla that her husband just phoned her to inform her that he'd been kidnapped and that his captors were threatening to kill him unless their Ransom demand of P10 Million (roughly 225,000 US) was paid promptly. The Embassy, following SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) notified the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, the top echelon of US Law Enforcement and the entity responsible for Americans victimised by crime in foreign nations). The FBI naturally contacted the Cagayan del Oro Police and lo and behold...What does the Cagayan del Oro PNP (Philippine National Police) do? They accuse Mr.Taylor of simply absconding to avoid having to pay a steep hotel bill. The Police Department's Chief, Sr.Supt.Antonio Montalba, reveals his ineptitude and crass unprofessionalism by badmouthing a man he knows nothing about. Making him look even more retarded is the fact that Mr.Taylor's passport was sitting in his room. How many foreigners are going to flee without their passports? A foreigner is unable to board a plane or a ferry without that crucial document. Unless one is aiming to spend the rest of his life growing yams while living in a nipa (bamboo framed thatched hut) they wouldn't be leaving THAT when trying to sneak out on a hotel bill.
How much was this huge bill anyway? It turns out that indeed, by Phillipine standards it was a very expencive tab. The total was P29,100 (roughly 690 US). One needs to understand that 690 US Dollars isn't a lot of money in the United States. The average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in New York City is close to 2,000 US Dollars. Therefore EVEN IF Mr.Taylor had been carrying his passport, as indeed foreigners always should (it is actually against the law not to do so), why would anyone with the slightest degree of sophistication imagine that person had decided to commit a major crime over such an insubstantial sum of money? One can easily understand why Mayor Emano finds his Chief of Police to be so disgusting.
By March Mr.Taylor's captors had realised that far from popular belief, not ALL Americans had cash puring out of their orifices. The kidnappers, guerillas from the MILF's 102 Base Command, lowered their initial demand of P10M to P300,000 (roughly 6,600 US) and still negotiations continued. After the requsite Proof of Life Videos (whatever happened to Polaroid snapshots of a victim holding a current newspaper) talks progressed more rapidly. At the end of March the negotiators settled on a measly P100,000 (roughly 2,200 US), or what is euphamistically known as a "Lodging Fee," to cover the victim's "Room and Board." At least that was the amount revealed in the media. The actual fee was P2 Million Pesos (roughly 44,000 US).
As a rule of thumb Philippine Authorities never publicly reveal Ransom details. At best they admit to a relatively paltry sum and play it off as the afore mentioned "Lodging" fee, as if victims ate 100,000 Pesos worth of boiled white rice and dried fish over the course of 2 months. In fact, intelligent people never notify the authorities when a loved one is kidnapped. Publicity mearely makes the captive more lucrative and drives up the Ransom. Often enough it is the local officials themselves, including local PNP (Philippine National Police) that have orchestrated the kidnappings. As I mentioned in a First Quarter 2011 entry on Kidnapping, a whole roster of local officials in Cotabato City have been charged in the Tsinoy (Chinese-Filipinos) Kidnappings that have plagued the city over the last 3 decades. None other than that municipality's local warlord, Vice Mayor Muslamin Sema found himself being criminally charged.
Mr.Taylor however can now try and put the whole sordid affair behind him. On April 4th, 2011 on the borders of Balo- and Marawi City, Lanao del Sur Province, the MILF handed a gaunt and pale Mr.Taylor to a slew of local officials led by Marawi's mayor who himself has been fingered (but not charged) in a rash of kidnappings affecting that part of yje island. Taken to Amai Pakpak Hospital in Marawi City for the requisite once over, he was then driven to Cagayan del Oro City for the (likewise) requisite photo opportunity in Mayor Emano's office. After the cameras were turned off the FBI took custody of a bewildered Mr.Taylor, poorer but at least alive.
The usual spiel is that a horde of "Yamashita's Gold" has been found. General Tomoyuki"Tiger of Malaya"Yamashita raped and pillaged all over Southeast Asia before shipping all the gold and jewels he had "confiscated" to Manila by way of Singapore. Once in the Philippines the war took a turn for the worse and so as Yamashita began retreating ahead of Allied troops he began depositing cachets in out of the way places, for retrieval in better times. Unfotunately for the General, Japan got its as* handed to them and Yamashita was captured. Worse still, he was branded a War Criminal (I hate when that happens) and was put on trial. Predictably General Yamashita was found guilty and on February 23, 1946 he was executed at Los Banos Prison Camp in Metro Manila.
While Mindanao WAS occupied, AND brutalised, by the Japanese during WWII, Yamashita never touched its shores. His legendary fighting retreat took place in Luzon. This is well worth mentioning because Yamashita is the name most often attached to supposed cachets of gold bullion, silver ingots and nickel babbits that enterprising swindlers claim to have discovered. An interesting riff on the theme is an American payroll in the form of Bearer Bonds or T-Notes, en route to USAFE guerilla forces on the island, crashed into an interior mountainside. There the plane and its contents sat undisturbed in the primeval rainforest until its latent discovery by primitive tribesmen with no concept of money, or modern concerns. Personally I find the latter story more believable and therefore I am a bit confused as to why such scammers are perpetually recycling the "gold bullion" nonsense as opposed to the "payroll" tale.
It is believed that the dynamic began on Luzon, indeed the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos claimed to have actually located Yamashita's treasure (giving rise to another Urban Legend, "Marcos' Gold." However THIS claim has been largely disproved and rationalised as an alibi for the vast fortune Marcos squirreled away. A fitting sidenote to these Luzon-centric tales is that almost always they involve Negrito Tribesmen. Originally the Negritos were mostly innocent actors, manipulated and duped themselves into portraying the "discovers" of whatever treasure was being peddled. Before long the Negritos themselves wised up and soon negated the role of lowlander middlemen and brokers, directly controlling the scam. I find that information gratifying on a certain level because if any one group should profit from the misery of whitemen it should be those whose land has been stolen BY whites (and in this case EVERYONE BUT NEGRITOS THEMSELVES) and who until the present live so far below the poverty line as to be virtually invisible. Don't get me wrong, I think theft is reprehensible EVEN IF it is entirely driven by the greed of the victim. It is just that I can't help admiring an iota of poetic justice..,
On Mindanao the usual scam involves fake gold ingots. In a very amateurish fashion the thieves take thinly gold plated bars, usually with lead cores, and then pass them off to naïve treasure hunters. To understand how gullible victims are, as heavy as lead may be, it is not nearly as heavy as actual gold. To show it in an even more ridiculous fashion, one recent scam used gold plated aluminum ingots! Aluminum is many more times lighter than steel, which is itself STILL three times as light as pure gold! Yet, after a scratch test which always registers positive for gold, we see person, after person, after person getting conned out of their money.
Just a few weeks ago, on February 28, 2011 a couple in Davao City were lured into such a scam. Despicably it was the wife's own aunt who led them like lambs to the slaughter. Florentino and Mailyn Capuyan allowed themselves to stupidly follow the advice of Marilyn's aunt, Erlinda P.Fernandez. Fernandez knew that the couple were looking into investing their savings and so arranged for the them to get in on a "great deal." After a quick phone call by Marilyn's salivating auntie they were given an address and told to immediately proceed to the home of Inday Mansalita. Ms.Mansalita, a Lumad (member of a Hilltribe, usually Animist) was "brokering" the cachet "discovered by fellow Lumads. Probably trebling with excitement...AND GREED, the couple wasted no time in driving to Malibog District on the outskirts of Davao City and found the Mansalita home.
Having agreed, amazingly on the phone, to buy 1 ingot and a gold Buddha statue for P1.7M (roughly 33,000 US) Florentino intelligenty asked to test the goods before handing over the paperbag full of pesos. When he picked up the ingot, which was manufactured out of an aluminum core, he realised it wasn't genuine (gee, it FINALLY occurred to him) and refused to fork over six times the average annual Mindanowan salary. At that point Inday's 7 male friends popped out with bolos (machetes) and explained that IF the couple didn't want to buy the ingot and statue, that was their perogative. However, their money was staying. To add insult to injury Marilyn had her P6,000 watch, P32,000 worth of jewlery and her P2,500 cellphone taken as well. At least they lived to tell about it, and to charge all the players including Auntie Erlinda.
In kidnap victim Milton Strowell Taylor's case, he was spending months online, chatting up the bottom feeders lurking around treasure hunting websites. These sites are full of con artists and the fish they fry. One person spending a lot of time talking to Mr.Taylor was a man from Lanao del Norte Province. Finally taking the plunge this past December, 2010, Mr.Taylor flew into Cagayan del Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province, just across the border from Lanao del Norte. Checking into room number 604 at a dive called "Lamar Inn," on the corner of Velez and JR Borja Streets, Mr.Taylor soon did his best to lose his life savings in record breaking time.
Registering as "Sam Taylor" he would spend his days meeting chatmates off of treasure hunting websites, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. On Janurary 12, 2011 he met his "friend" from Lanao del Norte in front of a food stall near Divisoria Mall. The young man who presented himself was in the company of a second man whom he identified as a family member who would be driving them to a promising site. Innocently the very gullible Mr.Taylor joined his 2 new associates for a ride to what he believed would be the municipality of Opol in that same province, Misamis Oriental. Imagine his suprise then when the SUV pulled into the parking lot of a mall in Iligan City, in Lanao del Norte Province. Imagine how much more suprised Mr.Taylor was when told that they would now have to switch vehicles...and oooops, "here's a blindfold to protect my "treasure's" location."
Fast forward to February 11. Mr.Taylor's loving wife back in Ohio notified the US Embassy in Manilla that her husband just phoned her to inform her that he'd been kidnapped and that his captors were threatening to kill him unless their Ransom demand of P10 Million (roughly 225,000 US) was paid promptly. The Embassy, following SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) notified the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, the top echelon of US Law Enforcement and the entity responsible for Americans victimised by crime in foreign nations). The FBI naturally contacted the Cagayan del Oro Police and lo and behold...What does the Cagayan del Oro PNP (Philippine National Police) do? They accuse Mr.Taylor of simply absconding to avoid having to pay a steep hotel bill. The Police Department's Chief, Sr.Supt.Antonio Montalba, reveals his ineptitude and crass unprofessionalism by badmouthing a man he knows nothing about. Making him look even more retarded is the fact that Mr.Taylor's passport was sitting in his room. How many foreigners are going to flee without their passports? A foreigner is unable to board a plane or a ferry without that crucial document. Unless one is aiming to spend the rest of his life growing yams while living in a nipa (bamboo framed thatched hut) they wouldn't be leaving THAT when trying to sneak out on a hotel bill.
How much was this huge bill anyway? It turns out that indeed, by Phillipine standards it was a very expencive tab. The total was P29,100 (roughly 690 US). One needs to understand that 690 US Dollars isn't a lot of money in the United States. The average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in New York City is close to 2,000 US Dollars. Therefore EVEN IF Mr.Taylor had been carrying his passport, as indeed foreigners always should (it is actually against the law not to do so), why would anyone with the slightest degree of sophistication imagine that person had decided to commit a major crime over such an insubstantial sum of money? One can easily understand why Mayor Emano finds his Chief of Police to be so disgusting.
By March Mr.Taylor's captors had realised that far from popular belief, not ALL Americans had cash puring out of their orifices. The kidnappers, guerillas from the MILF's 102 Base Command, lowered their initial demand of P10M to P300,000 (roughly 6,600 US) and still negotiations continued. After the requsite Proof of Life Videos (whatever happened to Polaroid snapshots of a victim holding a current newspaper) talks progressed more rapidly. At the end of March the negotiators settled on a measly P100,000 (roughly 2,200 US), or what is euphamistically known as a "Lodging Fee," to cover the victim's "Room and Board." At least that was the amount revealed in the media. The actual fee was P2 Million Pesos (roughly 44,000 US).
As a rule of thumb Philippine Authorities never publicly reveal Ransom details. At best they admit to a relatively paltry sum and play it off as the afore mentioned "Lodging" fee, as if victims ate 100,000 Pesos worth of boiled white rice and dried fish over the course of 2 months. In fact, intelligent people never notify the authorities when a loved one is kidnapped. Publicity mearely makes the captive more lucrative and drives up the Ransom. Often enough it is the local officials themselves, including local PNP (Philippine National Police) that have orchestrated the kidnappings. As I mentioned in a First Quarter 2011 entry on Kidnapping, a whole roster of local officials in Cotabato City have been charged in the Tsinoy (Chinese-Filipinos) Kidnappings that have plagued the city over the last 3 decades. None other than that municipality's local warlord, Vice Mayor Muslamin Sema found himself being criminally charged.
Mr.Taylor however can now try and put the whole sordid affair behind him. On April 4th, 2011 on the borders of Balo- and Marawi City, Lanao del Sur Province, the MILF handed a gaunt and pale Mr.Taylor to a slew of local officials led by Marawi's mayor who himself has been fingered (but not charged) in a rash of kidnappings affecting that part of yje island. Taken to Amai Pakpak Hospital in Marawi City for the requisite once over, he was then driven to Cagayan del Oro City for the (likewise) requisite photo opportunity in Mayor Emano's office. After the cameras were turned off the FBI took custody of a bewildered Mr.Taylor, poorer but at least alive.
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