More on the Ordoñez arrest...
Soldiers have arrested two senior commanders of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in two separate incidents, government officials said on Monday. Ibno Alih Ordoñez, alias Ibno Abbas Abdil, is wanted for murder and several counts of kidnapping, including the abductions of more than 50 Christian students and teachers from the Tumahubong Elementary School in Basilan on March 20, 2001. Several hostages were killed in that incident, including a Catholic priest who was tortured and shot in the head by the gunmen.
| "They were tough. They were mean. They shot nuns." |
A joint team of soldiers and policemen from the governmentâs antiterrorism task force arrested Ordoñez on Thursday near a school on Bayani Road, Fort Bonifacio, Makati City. Ordoñez did not resist arrest, authorities said.
| Heroically surrendered, did he? Was he hiding at the bottom of an outdoor toilet? |
Citing investigators, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters that Ordoñez operated a bus service for an exclusive school in Makati. Ermita said Ordoñez had lived in Western Bicutan since 2001. âWe are looking closely into circumstances of how Ordoñez managed to operate a school-bus service for an exclusive private school,â he said.
| Yeah. I think I'd have a pretty close look at that myself... |
Ordoñez is listed as the seventh most wanted Abu Sayyaf leader with a price of P1 million on his head. He was formerly a guard at the Basilan provincial jail and was believed to have scouted for potential victims for the Abu Sayyaf. In the early seventies he was a member of the Moro National Liberation Front.
| But not now. No, no! Certainly not! |
âAs a jail guard, he was believed to have doubled as a spy for Muslim rebel leaders with the principal assignment of monitoring the movements of military and police forces,â Ermita said. In 1998 military intelligence units in Mindanao monitored Ordoñez to have held several meetings with known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including his cousin, Abu Sabaya, the Abu Sayyafâs notorious spokesman who was killed in a gun battle with US-assisted Filipino commandos in 2002.
On Sunday troops nabbed an aide of the Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani outside an Islamic library on the southern island of Jolo, the head of an antiterror task force said.
"How could you tell it was an Islamic library?"
"There was only the one book." |
Joselito Nasara, known as Commander Abu Sophian, who is wanted for murder and kidnapping, heroically surrendered without a fight, Brig. Gen. Gabriel Habacon said.
"Stick 'em up, Joselito!"
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
"Hokay."
"No! Wait! I've changed my mind..." |
He was taken to Zamboanga City and now has underwear on his head and a plantain up his butt is under interrogation about possible links to the Jemaah Islamiah regional extremist group, Habacon said without elaborating.
"Arturo! These are not my pliers! These are vice grips!"
"I'm sorry, Commandante! Narcisso borrowed them to interrogate Ordoñez and didn't bring them back!"
"[Sigh!] I guess I'll have to make due."
"But the plantains are nice and fresh!" |
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