Doubts cast on AFP intelligence efficiency

From The Standard (Jun 27): Doubts cast on AFP intelligence efficiency

THE Armed Forces yesterday confirmed the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapping of seven Indonesian sailors on Wednesday last week, adding the victims were subsequently brought by their captors to the island-province of Sulu.

The military’s confirmation, which it said was based on intelligence information, came four days after the incident and two days after Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi reported the kidnapping.

Sought for comment last Friday after Marsudi’s statement, military officials said they were still validating the information from Indonesian authorities.

Aside from the kidnapping, Marsudi announced that a halt on coal shipments to the Philippines will remain in place until Manila can secure its waters. Indonesia supplies 70 percent of the Philippines’ coal import needs, which Indonesian data shows stood at about 15 million tons, worth around $800 million, last year.

Fourteen Indonesian tugboat crew members were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf last April and May between Sulu and Indonesian waters. They were later freed after reportedly paying ransom.

The Indonesian navy in April instructed all commercial vessels to avoid piracy-prone waters near the southern Philippines. Also in April, port authorities in some areas of Indonesia stopped issuing permits to ships taking coal to the southern Philippines.

Maj. Filemon Tan, spokesman of the AFP Western Mindanao Command, yesterday said the seven Indonesians, all crew members of the tugboat Charles 001, were kidnapped around 11 a.m. last Wednesday “in the high seas off Indonesia.”

“Information from ground units suggests that the kidnap victims are possibly being held captive somewhere in Sulu,” said Tan.

Sulu is a known bailiwick of the Abu Sayyaf which is keeping six other foreign and Filipino captives in the province.

Tan said the military’s Joint Task Force Sulu “is now assessing the situation and will plan for the best course of action to address the given situation.”

He also said six companions of the kidnapped Indonesians were not taken apparently because the boats used by the Abu Sayyaf were not big enough.

“There were 13 of them but they seized only seven. The rest already returned (to Indonesia) and reported the kidnapping,” said Tan.

“Based on reports, it’s the Abu Sayyaf (which did it). Intelligence units verified that this is the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf. However, we are still in the process of determining their (captives) whereabouts in Sulu,” he said.

“Once we identify the sub-group keeping them and the area where they are being kept, we will launch rescue operation,” he said.

Marsudi said earlier the seven Indonesians were kidnapped by two different armed groups in attacks on a tugboat towing a coal-carrying barge and that the government would “try all options to free the hostages.”

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