‘Robot’ yielding in the name of love

ILOILO CITY – A love-struck Commander Robot wants to surrender to the family of his third wife, his lawyer claimed yesterday.

The Abu Sayyaf leader, whose real name is Ghalib Andang, has reportedly expressed a desire to give up out of love for 35-year-old Marimar Matlih.

Oliver Lozano, lawyer of Andang, said over local radio yesterday Marimar’s father, Jul Kanain Matlih, told Andang that he would consider as paid the dowry for Marimar’s hand in marriage if the bandit gives up to government authorities.

"Robot’s father-in-law requested him to surrender to the government as a form of gift to their family for marrying Matlih’s daughter," Lozano said.

Lozano said Andang and Marimar met and fell in love when Marimar volunteered for a medical mission to the Abu Sayyaf hideout in the jungles of Sulu to treat the 21 mostly foreign hostages taken from Sipadan island last year.

Lozano said Marimar, who is a midwife from Talipao in Sulu, was said to have informed Andang that there was something wrong with the medicine that the medical mission had brought for the hostages.

Marimar and her father had been urging Andang to surrender even before Pre-sident Arroyo was swept to power last January, Lozano said.

He added he wanted Andang to surrender because the Dos Palmas hostage crisis has nothing to do with last year’s kidnapping of tourists from the resort island off Sabah.

On the other hand, outgoing Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson told reporters yesterday he was just "awaiting word" from his emissary on "when and where" Andang and 17 of his men plan to surrender.

"Our emissary, a Muslim professor, is just awaiting the order from the military to clear the area and as soon as he can get in touch with Robot, he will call me so that I can fetch him," he said.

Singson said Andang has already "agreed in principle" to give up and face kidnapping and murder charges filed against him in court but denied that he had offered to share his loot with the government.

"They are not asking for amnesty, they only want to avail the services of a lawyer," he said.

Negotiations for Andang’s surrender is taking time because of the "bureaucratic layers" wherein one has to pass at least eight people before finally getting access to the Abu Sayyaf leader, he added.

In Baguio City, government intelligence sources have reported sighting Andang and 17 heavily armed men "somewhere" in Ilocos Sur.

As of yesterday morning, The STAR tried but failed to contact Singson to confirm reports that Andang had been in Ilocos Sur since last week in preparation for his surrender.

Andang was also said to have been seen in neighboring Abra, presumably to meet with provincial board member Ernesto Pacuño, alias Dragon, who negotiated last year the release of many foreign hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf.

But Pacuño, a retired Constabulary colonel, denied in a statement yesterday that he was involved in any negotiation for the surrender of Andang to Singson.

"I categorically deny being part of this whole charade," read Pacuña’s statement. "I am not personally aware of the reported plans of Robot and I am not directly or indirectly involved in the negotiations for his alleged surrender."

Pacuño said the baseless claims of "unnamed sources" in newspapers had dragged his name into Andang’s reported plans to surrender to government authorities.

"I wish to belie the claim of these unnamed sources, whom the media have blindly believed, that I have bombshells to drop," read Pacuño’s statement. "Certain quarters continue to peddle the malicious insinuations that money changed hands in the Sipadan hostage negotiations. I wish to put an end to these lies by reiterating the fact that no such thing ever happened." – With Perseus Echeminada, Artemio Dumlao