The desire of Istiada Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Toha, the captured wife of Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist, to be deported to Indonesia, together with all of her children, will not be realized after all. Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. said the Philippine government will have to deport Toha on or before the end of this month even without all of her six children. Toha has earlier requested Philippine and Indonesian authorities to deport her back to Indonesia together with her six children.Philippine military operatives arrested Toha, together with her two children, aged six and eight, last month in the town of Patikul in Sulu. When Toha made her request, she revealed that her four other children with Aman Bin Usman alias Dulmatin were left in the care of a Filipino family in Patikul after her arrest.
Toha has violated immigration laws as she and her six children entered the country via the southern backdoor in 2003, three months after Dulmatin fled to Mindanao in April of the same year from Indonesia. Philippine military troops were sent out to locate the other four children of Toha but could not find them in the town of Patikul. "It looks like our efforts to locate the other children of Istiada Sovie with Dulmatin have proved to be futile," Esperon revealed.
He said the search for the other four children would however continue so that they could be sent back to Indonesia. He said Indonesian embassy officials are coming this week to fetch Toha and her two children from this city. Toha and her two children are in the custody of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) in Camp Don Basilio Navarro. Esperon visited the troops on Friday and Saturday in this city and in Sulu.