AFP knows where Schilling is held

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Reinforcements were sent to Sulu yesterday as government troops pinpointed the exact location of American Jeffrey Schilling and the Abu Sayyaf bandits who have been holding him captive since last August.

At Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Renato Corona said President Arroyo may meet with Schilling’s mother Carol, who arrived in the country the other day to plead with her son’s captors to spare his life.

"(The President) is also a mother," Corona said. "She is concerned about her children and she, of course, understands the feelings of a mother like Mrs. Schilling."

Corona said all that the government can do right now is to wait for reports from the field. He gave assurance that Schilling would be rescued and reunited with his mother.

"We will, of course, assure Mrs. Schilling that we will do our best to get her son safely back to her," he said. "But whether there was actual aggressive actions taken by our troops, there is no news of that, no confirmation of that."

Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said the rescue of Schilling and the Abu Sayyaf’s destruction are the objectives of two battalions of Army Scout Rangers, and a battalion each from the Marines and Army Special Forces.

"There is no reason for us to pull out," he said. "The Abu Sayyaf should release their captive immediately."

Col. Juvenal Narcise, spokesman for Task Force Janus, said the renewed military offensive will be the final push toward the Abu Sayyaf’s eventual destruction.

"In our planning stage, we consider this as the final one to finish the problem," he said.

Task Force Janus has replaced Task Force Trident in spearheading the search for Schilling and the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Sulu.

Narcise said government troops have not yet made contact with the Abu Sayyaf but that they have identified the exact spot where Schilling and the bandits are holed out.

"The intensity of this operation is low because this is a guerrilla type of warfare," he said. "The troops will find, fight, and fix the Abu Sayyaf."

Narcise said Army Special Forces will be used to rescue Schilling and "neutralize" the Abu Sayyaf to avoid a big number of casualties among government troops.

Catholic bishops expressed support yesterday for President Arroyo’s order to the Armed Forces to "annihilate" the Abu Sayyaf bandits to stop criminality in Mindanao.

Archbishop of Cotabato Oscar Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, told reporters yesterday the military should be in full force when they swoop down on the bandits’ hideout.

"If they are criminals and it seems they are because of cases against them, and the government is sincere in its fight to uproot these kinds of criminals, then they should go," he said.

However, Quevedo said the government should not return Camp Abubakar and other former MILF redoubts, which were taken at great loss of lives during last year’s all-out military offensive against the rebels.

"I don’t think it is a matter of right and justice that the MILF would return to the camps captured by the military," he said. "After all, it’s part of the territorial sovereignty of the Philippines."

Quevedo said Camp Abubakar comprises several barangays and communities, some of which antedated rebel occupation of the area.

"So I think these people who abandoned their homes have all the right to return to the villages, which occupy a small portion of the wide Camp Abubakar," he said. –Roel Pareño, Marichu Villanueva and Sandy Araneta