A Catholic priest who accused the military and some officials of colluding with the Abu Sayyaf in southern Basilan province, yesterday claimed that he saw the rebel group using weapons from the government arsenal.

The controversial priest, who lived through a 1994 Abu Sayyaf abduction, narrated that he saw the group's weapons were mostly stamped with markings of the Department of National Defence (DND) during the three weeks that he was held captive by the rebels. He said that at several times, he was told by the rebels that they had acquired the arms from the military through an unnamed government official.

"I, myself, during my captivity, saw these weapons with DND markings and overheard the rebels how would they purchase these arms," he told member of the House of Representatives who are in Basilan's Lamitan town to look into the reported collusion between the Army and the rebels.

The lawmakers opted to conduct the investigation in the kidnap-ridden southern province following statements issued by Nacorda that he received reports that local Army officials were paid by the Abu Sayyaf to allow them to escape on June 2 in Lamitan where a military cordon had surrounded the rebels holed up inside the St. Peter's Church and the adjacent Jose Torres Hospital.

During the hearing yesterday, a former Moro rebel-turned-politician, Congressman Abdulgani Salapuddin asked the hearing's convenor, Congressman Prospero Pichay to place Nacorda and his witnesses to the government's witness protection programe because they fear for their lives.

It was unknown if the priest and the other witnesses received death threats. No witnesses have publicly testified, instead Nacorda requested a closed-door session which the Congressional committee agreed.

Nacorda narrated the June 2 siege on how the Abu Sayyaf rebels raided his church at midnight and killed his military bodyguard and two other church workers and how he and his companion managed to escape.

The priest also told the probe body that he was approached by an officer of the Army's elite Scout Rangers, Capt. Ruben Guinulbay, and confided to him that his unit was only used as a 'ruse' by the military.

Guinulbay's unit of about 70 men were ambushed by rebels in Lamitan town. Nacorda said Guinulbay was crying when he was telling his story. But in yesterday's hearing Guinulbay denied saying to Narcorda that his unit was used as a ruse by his superiors.

He told the Congressmen that the Army truck they were riding in was met with heavy firepower from rebels who had taken position on the church towers and at the hospital, trapping some of them in truck while most of them jumped off to escape.

Three of his men were killed while many were wounded. Guinulbay said his unit was not fully armed because they just came from their completion of the Scout Ranger course. "If we were completely armed, we could have overrun the church where the rebels had been holding out," he said.