Guns, shades, satphone and attapulgite

What did an Abu Sayyaf terrorist leader with a $1-million bounty on his head carry in his backpack?

Three tubes of toothpaste, insect repellent, attapulgite tablets for diarrhea, plus the designer sunglasses that became the trademark of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aldam Tilao, alias Abu Sabaya.

His backpack looked ordinary enough: a canvas rucksack in gray and green double-stitched fabric one can buy in any market stall. Its other innocuous contents included a flashlight, lightbulbs, lotion, packets of tetracycline antibiotic and other over-the-counter medication, anti-itch lotion and a driver’s license from the Basilan Land Transportation Office (LTO) identifying him as Aldam Tilao.

But here the semblance of normalcy stops. Also found in Sabaya’s bag were other items that pointed to his trade as a kidnapper: an Acer satellite phone, an improvised dry-cell battery, a caliber .45 automatic, three ammunition magazines for an M-16 rifle and a pamphlet written in Arabic.

Sabaya was reportedly shot dead by the military Friday morning, but his body has not yet been recovered.

Armed Forces of the Phi-lippines (AFP) Southern Command (Southcom) chief Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina said pursuing troops also arrested the barangay captain of Mantibo in Sibuco town for allegedly conspiring with Sabaya and his men.

Carolina said he presented the contents of Sabaya’s bag to the media "because this confirms the identities of the captives and the positive identification of the other Abu Sayyaf we have, Bashir Ordoñez."

Carolina also confirmed reports that the AFP’s search for Abaya’s corpse continues: "Indeed, one of the three dead bodies we are looking for off the shore of Sibuco is that of Abu Sabaya. There is no doubt anymore that one of the dead bodies we are looking for belongs to Sabaya."

Carolina said the search team, led by Naval Forces South chief Commodore Ernesto de Leon, was exerting all efforts to locate within two days the bodies of Sabaya and the two other Abu Sayyaf members who were shot dead in last Friday’s gunbattle. After that time, the corpses will begin to decompose, making positive identification of the bodies more difficult unless there are existing dental and medical records they can use as a basis for identifying the corpses.

The Southcom chief added that military intelligence units are now reviewing all of Sabaya’s available medical and dental records, should they not retrieve Sabaya’s corpse intact. "We could get the body today or tomorrow, but will it still be intact?" Carolina asked.