Government troops working overtime to rescue US couple

Two Abu Sayyaf gunmen each with a P1-million bounty on their heads have been captured in the southern Philippines, police said yesterday as troops worked overtime to rescue an American missionary couple and a Filipina nurse held captive in Basilan.

The gunmen were identified as Sabtali Hadi and Iting Askalani, who were arrested separately in Zamboanga City over the weekend, police regional director Chief Superintendent Simeon Dizon said.

Their arrest is "part of the continuing crackdown on known Abu Sayyaf supporters and members," Dizon said.

American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas and Filipina nurse Deborah Yap are being held by the Abu Sayyaf in the southern island of Basilan, where some 5,000 soldiers are working overtime to free them before the year’s end, officials said.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Army Scout rangers have been operating deep in Basilan jungles to free the hostages, the last of dozens snatched by the rebels in a kidnapping spree this year.

The soldiers have "constricted a certain area" in Basilan’s hinterlands where the Abu Sayyaf gunmen are believed to be hiding the captives, but thick vegetation has been helping the gunmen evade pursuing troops, Tiglao said.

"The military is doing their best. The rangers have not returned to base for as long as a month now and supplies are just being dropped," Tiglao told reporters.

While President Arroyo is hopeful the hostages would be rescued in time for New Year, Tiglao said that "this is a military operation and we can’t really expect that everything is under control."

Tiglao added that the President is being briefed by military commanders on the situation in Mindanao even though she is vacationing in Baguio City with her family.

Government militia "blocking forces" were helping the soldiers in their hunt for the Abu Sayyaf, which both Manila and the US government have linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

The three hostages are the last from among scores of hostages the Abu Sayyaf seized this year. The gunmen had earlier beheaded a third American, Guillermo Sobero of California, and more than a dozen Filipino hostages.

Tiglao’s comments comes after the military failed to meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline to free the hostages, who have been in captivity for nearly seven months.

Apart from the Burnhams and Yap, an Italian missionary is separately being held by another group of Muslim gunmen elsewhere in the south. – Marichu Villanueva, Roel Pareño