Gunmen seize couple in southern town

Gunmen seized a couple in a remote southern town on suspicions that they were selling illegal drugs, a military report said.

It said masked gunmen threatened to execute the duo, Dodong and Liezl Dumaguit, late on Thursday after seizing them from their house in the town of Sibuco in Zamboanga del Norte province, where separatist rebels are known to operate.

Village leaders were reportedly negotiating with the gunmen to free the hostages, who are also accused of gun-running. The military said the couple are believed to be being held in the town's hinterlands, a known stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), blamed for a recent ambush on a Canadian mining truck in Baliguian town that left at least 13 people dead and a dozen others wounded.

The gunmen have threatened to kill the hostages unless their families pay at least P120,000 ($2,265) in blood money to their victims.

The kidnappers have told negotiators "the blood money is the payment for their sins and the damage the couple have inflicted to the Muslim youths in Sibuco."

No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction and the military did not say if the MILF was involved in the abduction.

The military claimed that the MILF, the largest separatist rebel group in south, has in the past kidnapped suspected criminals and executed them in public after they were found guilty by the front's Shariah court.

MILF guerrillas were also accused by the military of being behind the attack on Thursday of a truck owned by the Calgary-based Toronto Ventures Inc., (TVI). The Canadian firm is accused by the Catholic charity Caritas Philippines of harassing tribesmen who oppose mining operation on their ancestral land where most of their dead are buried.

Yesterday, the military implicated two MILF leaders in the Thursday ambush that left 13 people dead. The military linked MILF commanders Suya Arasid and Maula Abdul Fatta to the ambush in Baliguian town that also left 12 people seriously injured. Security officials earlier linked rebel leaders Adlam Maing and Sibit Sayok to the attack.

Southern command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said 30 MILF rebels attacked the truck on a remote village in Baliguian. "We have recovered evidence linking the MILF to the ambush and we will file a protest with the government peace panel," Abaya said.

He said the MILF has violated the ceasefire agreement it signed with the government. Troops claimed to have recovered identification cards of MILF rebels from the ambush site. "We also have extortion letters from the MILF asking money from TVI and that's one of the motives of the ambush. We will not tolerate this terrorism. Soldiers are now pursuing the terrorists," Abaya said.

Manila is negotiating peace with the MILF, but despite a ceasefire agreement fighting continues in the south.

The MILF has strongly denied the accusation that it was behind the attack. "We are not involved in that attack. We don't kill innocent people. The MILF is currently negotiating peace with the government," rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said.

He said MILF forces were pulled out from Zamboanga del Norte in June after troops killed a key Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya in a sea clash.

"We have pulled out our fighters from Zamboanga del Norte and sent them to Lanao provinces because of the Abu Sayyaf. We don't want to be accused by the government of aiding terrorists," he said.