Arroyo to Powell: Look who’s talking

Look before you talk.

President Arroyo brought up the1974 kidnapping of Patricia Hearst yesterday to hit back at the United States over its impatience with the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapping of three Americans, saying it took US authorities one year and five months to rescue the newspaper heiress from her abductors.

The Chief Executive was reacting to US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s reported statement to Vice President Teofisto Guingona at the ASEAN regional forum in Vietnam last week that the Philippine government must do more to end the more than two-month hostage crisis in Basilan, where three Americans and 19 Filipinos are being held captive.

Mrs. Arroyo said in a radio interview: "Patty Hearst, how long did it take for them to bring her out?"

Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in the US in April 1974 and later joined her abductors in robbing a bank in San Francisco before she was captured in September 1975 in a police assault at their hideout in Los Angeles, where most of her kidnappers were killed.

Hearst was later jailed after being tried and convicted of bank robbery, but was released in 1979.

The Abu Sayyaf extremists snatched the three Americans – missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and businessman Guillermo Sobero – and 17 Filipinos from the Dos Palmas island resort off Palawan last May 27.

Some of the Filipino hostages were reportedly freed after paying a large ransom but the Abu Sayyaf bandits seized more captives and killed four Filipino hostages after fleeing to Basilan.

In Sulu meanwhile, Army troops killed three Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in Talipao town as they pushed their offensive to flush out the bandits from their jungle hideout.

Military officials said the three dead bandits had taken part in the Abu Sayyaf operation in Sipadan island off Sabah, where they seized 21 mostly European hostages on Easter Sunday last year before bringing them to Sulu.

Abu Sayyaf leaders Khadaffi Janjalani and Abu Sabaya had tried to slip through the military dragnet and go down the Sampinit complex with the Burnhams, the officials added.

Army Maj. Alberto Gepilano, spokesman for Task Force Comet, said troops from the Army’s 104th Brigade and the 34th Military Intelligence Company encountered 10 armed men of Mujib Susukan in Barangay Batad in Talipao.

"The bandits were forced to escape as they were badly inflicted," he said.

Gepilano said one of the guerrillas, Moner Munap, was captured after he opened fire at the troops with guns which he had taken from the bushes.

Some of the bandits fled toward nearby Barangay Tinga, where Moner was captured while the soldiers were searching the area, he added.

Gepilano said Munap, who carries a reward on his head, was among those who kidnapped two French journalists and 12 members of the Jesus Miracle Crusade, including their spiritual leader Wilde Almada, last year.

Abu Sayyaf commander Ladasan Asanji and six of his men surrendered to military officials yesterday and brought along assorted high-powered firearms in Barangay Bondon in Patikul, he added.

Meanwhile, the US will donate a C-130 transport plane, five helicopters and a PT class cutter to the Armed Forces as part of US military assistance.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao, quoting a letter from US Embassy Chargés d’ Affaires Michael Malinowski, said the cutter will be delivered next month and the helicopters in January next year.

"We are happy to receive such a grant," he said. "Malinowski informed President Arroyo that the plane was undergoing final phases of regeneration."

In his letter, Malinowski sasid: "We trust this aircraft will be a welcome addition to the Philippine Air Force’s fleet of airlift assets and that it will augment their current capabilities."– Marichu Villanueva, Roel Pareño