Police present Sayyaf man involved in Dos Palmas hostage taking

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Police presented to the media yesterday the captured Abu Sayyaf member tagged as one of those who guarded American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham at the height of the Dos Palmas kidnapping in Basilan five years ago.

Police Regional Office 9 director Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal said Yunus Anding, alias Abu Yunus, a native of Basilan, was captured last Sept. 14 in Lower Maligue, Isabela City, Basilan by combined police, military and naval intelligence units.

"He served as one of the guards of the Burnhams and the other Dos Palmas victims," Caringal said during the media presentation at Camp Abendan in Barangay Mercedes, east of this city.

Caringal said warrants of arrest were issued against Anding by Judge Danilo Bucoy, of Basilan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 2, aside from the amended warrants issued by the Pasig RTC in connection with the Dos Palmas incident.

The arrest of Anding has brought to 159 the captured Abu Sayyaf members, who are now all detained in Pasig City.

According to Caringal, Anding was also an accomplice in the beheading of two of the six farmers abducted from Golden Harvest in Barangay Tairan, Lantawan at the height of the Dos Palmas hostage taking.

He said Anding was positively identified by the victims, who are now witnesses of the Department of Justice (DOJ), as one of the Abu Sayyaf men who participated in the Lamitan siege in 2001.

During interrogation, Anding admitted participating in the kidnapping of Spanish priest Father Blanco, Father Cerilo Nacorda, and the Biel and Barandino families in the early 1990s in Basilan.

Caringal said Anding, who was recruited by slain Abu Sayyaf founder Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, may lead to the final resolution of the infamous Ipil town raid in Zamboanga del Norte on April 4, 1995.

Caringal added that Anding voluntarily confessed participation in the planning and execution of the Ipil raid where the terrorists pillage the town after ransacking the banks, killing more than 50 people, including the town’s police chief and 102nd Army Brigade deputy chief Maj. Subido.

"He could be a witness (and may lead to) the resolution of that infamous raid. But it will depend on the approval of the DOJ," Caringal said.

Anding will be turned over to the court in Pasig City in Manila anytime, he added.