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Philippine Senate to Probe Military-Abu Sayyaf Connivance
Philippine Senate is set to investigate the alleged connivance by certain ranking military officers including a general with the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf as claimed by a Catholic priest, the Philippine News Agency reported.
Senator Robert Barbers has asked the Senate Committees on National Defense and the Blue Ribbon to look into the revelation accusing certain military officers of allowing the Abu Sayyaf bandits to escape with their hostages from a hospital compound in Lamitan, Basilan in the southern Philippines, on June 2.
Brig. Gen. Romeo B. Dominguez, a former commander of the Philippine Army based in Basilan, Thursday denied that he ordered to lift the siege and allow the passage of the trapped Abu Sayyaf bandits.
But Dominguez who has been moved to another commander position, admitted there were tactical lapses committed by the military during the stand-off with the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Lamitan in the early dawn of June 2.
There are more than 20 hostages kidnapped from the hospital and a western Philippine resort and a coconut plantation company in Basilan still in the hands of Abu Sayyaf bandits.
The military has vowed to neutralize the bandits and rescue all the hostages before the end of November.
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