‘No real info yet on Abu leaders’

As word goes out about the $5-million bounty offered last week by the US for the heads of five top Abu Sayyaf leaders, military commanders in Basilan are still waiting for that valuable piece of information that would reveal the whereabouts of the elusive enemy.

Col. Alexander Alejo, whose Army soldiers have been running after the bandits for months, said they have yet to receive solid information on the Abu Sayyaf leaders’ whereabouts.

The reward is open to anyone around the world who may information that could to the capture of the five. Informants abroad can call US authorities in Manila or in the United States through a toll-free hotline.

All information would be kept strictly confidential, and tipsters who could give useful information to the authorities may also be given assistance in moving out of their own countries and living elsewhere, embassy officials said.

A day after the reward offer was announced, calls – including prank calls – poured into the US Embassy. A few were said to be promising.

But, according to a local military commander in Basilan, the people of the island-province are in the best position to give the vital information.

Alejo, head of the Philippine Army’s 103rd Brigade, is confident that once the word about the bounty spreads across the impoverished island, somebody will talk.

"We’ll have to discuss how to go through the procedural aspects of giving information and getting benefits. Perhaps they do not know the details of the reward," Alejo told a radio interview.

The Philippine government has also offered a cash reward of P5 million for the capture of each top Abu Sayyaf leader. But so far there have been no takers.

But now that the stakes have been raised, many are confident that it will be a matter of time now before the Abu Sayyaf is finally collared and its three hostages freed.

Authorities predict that the lure of money might tempt one of the Abu Sayyaf bandits to rat on the others.

The crucial information the military is now waiting for is the exact whereabouts of the bandits and where they are holding the hostages.

Despite the use of the US military’s highly sophisticated satellite surveillance and unmanned spy planes, the bandits’s mastery of the jungle terrain have enabled them to escape detection.

Basilan’s jungles are so thick, a US general likened the mission to looking for a "tiny tack in the backyard."

Finding the small, high mobile bandit group and their captives "is really a very difficult task even with all of the intelligence resources that we’re willing to commit to it," said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, who heads the American troops who are training local soldiers on how to better fight the Abu Sayyaf.

On the ground, the Philippine military relies on civilian agents and informants in tracking down the bandits, but still with no success.

Once, the military reported recently that it received information that its two American hostages, missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, were ill.

Martin is reportedly suffering from malaria while his wife reportedly has urinary tract infection. Martin was seen being carried on a stretcher by his captors. The military has yet to verify the reports.