A group of senators investigating allegations by a Catholic priest that the military had colluded with the Abu Sayyaf militants on Basilan island yesterday met with several witnesses here corroborating such accusations.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, chairman of the Senate committee on defence, arrived here from Manila at 6.30 a.m. and went to the military's Southern Command headquarters before proceeding to Basilan.

He was accompanied by Senators Noli de Castro, Gregorio Honasan and Panfilo Lacson, and former ambassador to the United States Ernesto Maceda.

De Castro told the Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in Basilan that he had spoken to some witnesses who corroborated allegations by the Lamitan town priest, Cirilo Nacorda, that some military officials had colluded with Abu Sayyaf militants in their kidnapping operations in Mindanao.

Nacorda has accused Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez and four other Army officers of conniving with the Abu Sayyaf and allowing the militants to slip through the military dragnet at the Jose Torres Memorial Hospital and the St. Peter Church in Lamitan.

Abu Sayyaf guerrillas raided the hospital and the church on June 2 and held more than 200 people, but freed them later before leaving the hospital. Dominguez strongly denied the accusations and threatened to file libel charges against the priest, who did not appear at the Senate inquiry held in Lamitan town.

Nacorda said he and other witnesses did not attend the Senate probe because they were not given enough time to prepare. But the priest was quick to say that they would attend a separate Congressional inquiry today, in the same town.

More than a hundred Nacorda supporters gathered outside the town hall, many carrying streamers and placards that read 'We Are All Behind You, Fr. Loi (Nacorda's nickname)' and 'Fight For Us'.

Dozens of heavily armed soldiers and policemen, backed by armoured vehicles, guarded the town's central district. "We have security in the town to ensure the peaceful conduct of the Senate inquiry," Col. Hermogenes Esperon, Basilan Army commander, said.

The senators interviewed several witnesses, including hospital staff members. But many have failed to back-up their accusations with hard evidence. One female witness said she saw Dominguez get 1,000-peso ($19.60) bills from a black briefcase and handed these to a doctor inside the hospital a day after the militants escaped.

Nacorda earlier insisted that Dominguez distributed P5,000 ($98.04) to hospital staff members for their "snack". The money, Nacorda claimed, was inside a black attache case and was believed to be part of the ransom loot of the Abu Sayyaf.

Dr Julius Aguila, a consultant at the hospital, earlier claimed that Dominguez gave him P5,000. "Gen. Dominguez asked me how he could help us and he handed me P5,000, and then I thanked him," Aguila had been quoted as telling a local television reporter.

Dominguez said, however, that the money was in payment for the expenses that his troops had incurred at the hospital. He said he was not carrying a black briefcase around. "The priest is lying and my conscience is clean," he said. "I may not be a religious man, but God knows my conviction."