Misuari hiding in an island in Sulu, hunted by govt tracking teams - Hataman

From InterAksyon (Sep 23): Misuari hiding in an island in Sulu, hunted by govt tracking teams - Hataman



Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari is now being hunted by a tracker team of government security forces in one of the islands in Sulu, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Mujib Hataman said on Monday.

Interviewed after the budget hearing for ARMM, Hataman said they received and validated reports from their sources that Misuari is now holed up in an island in Sulu, which he refused to identifty.

“We have reports [that he is in Sulu, though not on the mainland but on one of the islands there, and he] is mobile,” Hataman told media, speaking partly in Filipino. Misuari is no longer in the station he used to stay in before hundreds of his followers laid siege on Zamboanga City 14 days ago, according to the governor.

Hataman stressed the information relayed to him was updated by intelligence sources. “The information is updated, actually updated, as of this morning, someone informed me he is still in Sulu.”

Nur’s false promise

Meanwhile, Hataman offered the version he pieced together of what ignited the raid of the city. He said the group of Misuari's top aide Habier Malik attacked Zamboanga City because Misuari promised and informed them that the United Nations had sent a peacekeeping force to assist them in proclaiming independence from the Philippines.

Supposedly Malik's group was told that once the UN peacekeepers arrive in Zamboanga, they [MNLF men] will be given salaries and guns, Hataman said.

He claimed Misuari used a certain Daniel Xavier, an American expatriate living in Bacolod or Tacloban and posing as a representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the country.

“There is a man claiming to ba an American and UN representative named Daniel Xavier, who went to Sulu--we don't know if he's still there--about one month and two week before the crisis in Zamboanga,” Hataman said.

Misuari supposedly used Xavier to persuade Malik’s group to go to Zamboanga City and declare their Independence in the city as they did somewhere in Palawan last month.

Hataman said that when he learned of that report, “we called OPAPP (Office of Presidential Adviser for Peace Process), so the OPAPP communicated with the UN.”

A check with the UN representative in Manila, Hataman added, later had the international organization deny they have a man called Daniel Xavier.

“During the early days of this crisis, the UN issued statements twice [denying they had sent a representative],” Hataman said.

Hataman said a tracking team is now also hunting Xavier, who is believed to be hiding.

The ARMM chief added that Xavier is also being hunted for an estafa case lodged against him in Bacolod City.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/71344/misuari-hiding-in-an-island-in-sulu-hunted-by-govt-tracking-teams---hataman