Philippine military chief visits restive southern island

Aug 12, 2007, 6:55 GMT

Zamboanga City, Philippines - The Philippine military's chief on Sunday arrived on a southern island as government troops stepped up an offensive against Muslim rebels who killed 26 soldiers in recent clashes.

General Hermogenes Esperon was on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, to personally assess and review the military's operations against al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas.

Esperon visited Jolo as 1,000 more troops began to arrive on the southern island, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, where top militants of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group were also believed to be hiding.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has also ordered the head of the army, General Romeo Tolentino, to relocate to nearby Zamboanga City to be in charge of the offensive.

'I have ordered army commanding General Romeo Tolentino to the front lines, to oversee the theatre of operations,' Arroyo said in a statement on Saturday. 'The army headquarters will now be temporarily set up in ... Zamboanga City until the situation normalizes.'

Tolentino used to be the army brigade commander in Jolo, including the time when the Abu Sayyaf abducted 21 Western and Asian hostages from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in April 2000.

The hostages were held in the jungles of Jolo for months, until they were either ransomed off or rescued by the military.

Last week, 26 soldiers were killed in a series of clashes with Abu Sayyaf rebels and MNLF fighters on Jolo. Twenty-five of them were killed in separate ambushes by the guerrillas on Thursday.

The military said 31 guerrillas were also slain in the fighting that has forced more than 4,300 civilians to flee their homes of being caught in the crossfire.

A young boy earlier reported killed in the firefight turned out to have only been wounded and is now safe after receiving treatment, according to local social welfare officers.

The MNLF, which signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996, has called for international intervention to prevent an escalation of the hostilities on Jolo.

An MNLF official has admitted that some of the rebel group's members were involved in the fighting in retaliation for the killing of a commander earlier last week.

While the MNLF has signed a peace pact with the government, many of its members still carry firearms and hold camps in their former strongholds. Many of them have also expressed dissatisfaction over the implement of the peace agreement.

The military has been conducting an offensive against the Abu Sayyaf on Jolo since last year, resulting in the deaths of some of the group's leaders. The Abu Sayyaf is believed to be have tied up with the JI to train and launch terrorist attacks.