Muslim rebel leader in Cebu hospital?

CEBU, Philippines - Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) leader Umbra Kato was hospitalized in Cebu City last month and was assisted by a politician, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), citing a report from Cebu, said in a statement.

In an article posted on its website luwaran.com, the MILF said the report was corroborated by a government official in Maguindanao.

“We knew of Kato’s presence in Cebu one day after he arrived, but we kept the information close to our heart for humanitarian reasons,” the statement quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The MILF said Kato’s hospitalization “was facilitated and bankrolled by a politician, whose identity has not been disclosed yet.”

But Sr. Supt. Erson Digal, chief of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Operation and Plans Division, denied the reports saying they did not receive any information that Kato was in Cebu City.

“Negative man mi ana. The last report we received was that he had a heart attack and the government forces slowly overpowered the rebels,” Digal said in a phone interview.

Kato’s health condition prompted his lieutenant Mohammad Ali Tambako to take the rein of the BIF, it added.

Tambako, according to another source, “is more radical than Kato, perhaps due to his closer contact with militant personalities while taking his Islamic studies in Khartoum, Sudan.”

Kato, who is carrying a P10 million bounty on his head, reportedly reassumed his post as BIFM chief last month.

“However, he was seen as very weak and frail even in how he read his prepared speech,” the MILF statement said.

Some of the civilians displaced by the offensives of Kato’s group, said the BIFM leader could neither stand nor walk around his bunker in Mount Firis without the help of at least two aides.

The military could not confirm reports that Kato was brought to Cebu last month for medical treatment.

But Col. Prudencio Asto, spokesman of the Army’s 6th division, said Kato was brought out of his camp in Maguindanao during the encounters last Aug. 6.

The BIFM has been conducting offensives in Mindanao since Aug. 5

The group first raided military detachments and camps along the Cotabato-General Santos Highway.

The rebels also attacked areas near Datu Piang and Salibo in Maguindanao.

BIFM fighters also launched offensives in barangays Magaslong and Magaslong, forcing thousands of civilians to evacuate. — /Philippines Star News Service/ Ria Mae Y. Booc/MBG