Southcom officials said elements of the 18th Infantry Battalion conducted the raid on the strength of four warrants of arrest for Tilao, but the terrorist leader managed to escape as four of his cohorts fired at the soldiers.
The supposed safehouse, located in Barangay Poblacion in Lamitan, turned out to be owned by Tuburan Mayor Dorie Kalahal, allegedly a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Southcom spokesman Capt. Noel Detoyato said the military is looking into the extent of Kalahal’s involvement with the Abu Sayyaf.
The military seized from Kalahal’s house two caliber-5.56 M-653 rifles, two M-16 rifles, one M-203 grenade launcher and three Motorola radio transceivers.
The soldiers also found bloodstains leading toward a back door through which Tilao is believed to have fled.
In June last year, Tilao and his cohorts also managed to slip through a military cordon at the Jose Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan, Basilan where the Abu Sayyaf seized hospital workers supposedly to care for their wounded and hostages they seized from a Palawan resort on May 27.
Tilao’s Abu Sayyaf faction still holds one of the Filipino nurses they kidnapped in Lamitan and the American missionary couple they snatched from Palawan.
Local and US forces are now conducting the joint RP-US "Balikatan" military exercises on Basilan aimed at rescuing the three hostages and neutralizing the Abu Sayyaf which has been staging kidnapping sprees in Western Mindanao over the past years.
Meanwhile, President Arroyo said during a radio interview that she favors the extension of the war games and is even considering holding Balikatan in other parts of Mindanao.
Local Basilan officials are already preparing a resolution asking the President to seek the deployment of more US troops, particularly military engineering battalions.
"The mere presence of the Americans in Zamboanga City and Basilan is helping much. I believe that if they are allowed to stay longer, they will be able to help more people," the President said.
According to Mrs. Arroyo, the Americans have already proposed at least 30 infrastructure projects in Basilan, including the completing of the island’s still unfinished circumferential road.
"The proposal of the Americans to help build the Basilan circumferential road is good news to the people of Basilan. They are not there to bring war but development. The people should understand that," she said. - With Roel Pareño, Marichu Villanueva