Schilling undergoes debriefing

BAGUIO CITY — Authorities are debriefing former hostage Jeffrey Schilling who was rescued from Abu Sayyaf bandits on Maundy Thursday after eight months in captivity.

Schilling, who lost nearly 100 pounds during his eight-month ordeal, was flown to Manila for debriefing yesterday after he was presented to President Arroyo at the presidential mansion here on Friday.

"Pupulbusin ko sila (I will pulverize them)," a visibly pleased Mrs. Arroyo told reporters what she would do to the terrorists during a hastily called press conference at the garden of the presidential mansion on Friday.

"They (the Abu Sayyaf) must be exorcised from our midst for they have no rightful place in our society," said the President, who later hosted a dinner for Armed Forces generals and US Embassy officials, led by chargé d’affaires Michael Malinowski.

At the same time, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the President ordered the military to unleash its full might in rescuing Roland Ullah, the Filipino dive instructor who was abducted in Sipadan island in Malaysia in April last year.

US Embassy spokesman Richard Anderson said Schilling, 25, of Oakland, California, will be resting under US custody while American and Philippine government officials debrief him on his captivity.

"He’ll be resting. He’ll be debriefed by the embassy and the Philippine government... and when that’s over, he’ll head for home," Anderson said.

He declined to say what the Philippine and US authorities want to find out from Schilling but said the former captive was "cooperating" and will be in Manila "at least another day."

Schilling was rescued from the Abu Sayyaf extremists by a team composed of troops from the Army’s 106th Brigade and policemen from Luuk town in Sulu, under Senior Police Officer 3 Hajim Timbang.

According to commanding officer 1st Lt. Armando Custodio, the 31-man composite team recovered Schilling after a "minor engagement" with five bandits who were apparently left to guard him.

"He was happy (when we got him)," Custodio told The STAR. "He was smiling, but he was not crying."

"He said he always believed that the Abus were just using him to bluff the Armed Forces," Custodio said, crediting Timbang as the first one to make contact with Schilling.

The young officer said he was part of the brigade, commanded by Col. Renato Miranda, which was sent to Jolo only two days before the rescue to bolster the newly formed Task Force Comet which implemented "Operation: Bull Run" to recover Schilling. Custodio said his team had scoured a four kilometer area from their command post when civilians pointed them to mountainous Barangay Bato along the western coast of Jolo where Schilling was seen.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva credited the success of the ongoing operations of Task Force Comet to the cooperation of civilians.

"What made a difference this time was that the people of Sulu already started giving voluntary information," Villanueva said in Mrs. Arroyo’s press conference.

"The Abu Sayyaf is now on the run. They don’t like to engage us," said Col. Romeo Tolentino, who had headed the brigade-strength operations against the Abu Sayyaf since April last year.

Armed Forces Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, for his part, said Operation Bull Run was a dragnet that also involved two divisions on stand-by.

"Nagkalat ang forces natin doon (Our forces were all over the place)," Camiling told The STAR. "We encircled them and we redeployed the fourth and sixth divisions. Then we immediately operated."

When rescued, Schilling was barefoot and pockmarked with mosquito bites. He spent Thursday night at Custodio’s headquarters at Barangay Bato and was later airlifted to Jolo town airport where he boarded a C-130 cargo plane for Baguio.

During Mrs. Arroyo’s press conference, Schilling did not appear overwhelmed with joy at his rescue, saying only that he was very tired and wanted to go home to the US.

Willing or unwilling hostage?

Schilling, a Muslim convert who supposedly married a cousin of one of his captors, also denied that he was a willing hostage and was "in cahoots" with the bandit group.

"I was never in cahoots with the Abu Sayyaf," Schilling said.

Abu Sayyaf bandits allegedly abducted Schilling on Aug. 31 last year after he walked into a rebel lair accompanied by his Filipina wife, Ivy Osana, a cousin of bandit leader Abu Sabaya. Osana was allowed to walk out of camp and even accompanied Schilling’s mother when she came to plead for his life earlier this month.

On three separate occasions, Sabaya subsequently threatened to behead Schilling if the government would not give in to their demands, including a $10 million ransom. The threat was never carried out.

Civilians in Sulu island have also reported seeing Schilling patrolling with the bandits and carrying a rifle.

But he said that since his looks had changed after he was seized, the rebels told him to carry weapons so that he would appear to be an Arab or Palestinian comrade and not an American hostage.

"They gave me firearms to carry in order to deceive the civilians," he said.

Villanueva also said the military launched the offensive on the presumption that Schilling was an unwilling hostage.

"If we thought otherwise, we would not have gone after him," Villanueva said.

But National Security Adviser Roilo Golez downplayed speculations that Schilling was a willing hostage and stressed instead that the bandit group’s bargaining power has now been diminished.

Late last year, there were reports that Schilling was actually an arms supplier whose deal with the bandit group went awry.

"Whatever it is, he was an American hostage that we have successfully rescued. So this has cut down their bargaining chips and insurance," Golez told The STAR in a phone interview.

"So they no longer have other options but to surrender," Golez said.

Military officials confirmed that troops are now massing in Jolo and are preparing to pin down the bandits and perhaps capture bandit leaders Qadaffi Janjalani and Sabaya.

Task Force Comet spokesman Col. Juvenal Narcise said the task force is now aware of the location of Janjalani and Sabaya and is preparing to launch rescue operations for Ullah.

"We know already their location,. We have already extricated one and only have one more to go," Narcise said. "The pressure has shifted on the shoulders of Sabaya." – With Marichu Villanueva, Roel Pareño, Christina Mendez