Task Force Comet chief back from 2-week break

MANILA, Philippines – Major General Juancho Sabban is back as head of the government’s Task Force Comet, which is securing the release of two foreign aid workers still being held by the Abu Sayyaf in southern Philippines. Radio dzBB’s Benjie Liwanag reported that Sabban, who just came from a two-week leave, heard an Easter Sunday Mass with military officials in Sulu province. The report did not indicate when Sabban returned to the Philippines. Saban, who went leave on March 24, flew to Colombia where he was invited as keynote speaker on the seminar “Counter-insurgency and Counter-terrorism – the Columbian Experience," from March 28 to April 2. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. insisted that Sabban’s trip was approved long before the hostage crisis and his alleged spat with Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). Gordon had accused Sabban of sabotaging efforts to secure the hostages by prematurely repositioning his troops. The senator also called for Sabban’s relief for allegedly initiating the clashes with the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu province. The key events that transpired during Sabban’s furlough are the declaration of the state of emergency in Sulu on March 31, and the release of one of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) volunteers, Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, on April 2. The two other hostages, Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni, are now on their 87th day in the hands of their captors. In Sunday’s radio report, Sulu Governor and Task Force ICRC head Abdusakur Tan was quoted as saying that later in the day, a meeting would be held with the two government emissaries talking with the al-Qaeda linked militants. Tan refused to disclose the identities of the two representatives for security reasons. Tan likewise said that the government would continue assisting the more than 7,000 displaced locals in Sulu. In its situation overview last Friday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) on Saturday said that he number of residents affected by the state of emergency in Sulu has grown to 1,586 families or 7,658 persons from eight villages of Indanan town in Sulu. Of these, 130 families or 607 people are still housed at three elementary schools, including Lampaki Elementary School (45 families or 180 people from Tumantangis and Kuppong); Poblacion Elementary School (11 families or 57 people from Bud Taran, Langpas, Bud Tumantangis and Kuppong); and Langpas Elementary School (74 families or 370 people from Bud Taran and Bud Tumantangis). - GMANews.TV