Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippines) Copyright: 2002 Philippine Daily Inquirer Contact: http://www.inquirer.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1073 Author: Julie S. Alipala and TJ Burgonio, Inquirer News Service ELITE TROOPS LAND IN JOLO Hard-Hitting Force JOLO, Sulu - The four remaining Jehovah's Witnesses abducted Tuesday supposedly by drug addicts were sighted with their captors Saturday morning, a ranking military officer reported. Brig. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, commander of the Army's 104th Infantry Brigade, also said the hands of two of the four women captives were bound. "I cannot tell who are those tied, but I presume they are the younger women, Emily Mantic and Florida Montulo," he said. Tolentino said that the military had started cordoning the area of the sighting and that blocking forces had been set up where the kidnappers, supposedly led by Abdulmuin Sahiron, a nephew of top Abu Sayyaf commander Radulan Sahiron, were expected to pass. "We have already pinpointed their location," Tolentino told the Inquirer. "Maybe in a two or three days we might get them, hopefully." He declined to name the specific areas, invoking "tactical matters." More than 30 soldiers belonging to the US-trained Light Reaction Company (LRC) landed at the Jolo Airport at around 11 a.m. They brought with them sophisticated combat equipment, including night-vision goggles and sniper rifles fitted with laser scopes, not available to regular troops. As soon as the C-130 military cargo plane that carried them from Basilan landed, a number of the elite soldiers secured the area before the rest of the team disembarked. Tolentino said the LRC would assist the 11 battalions of soldiers tracking down the abductors of Cleofe and Florida Montulo, Nori Bendijo and Emily Mantic, as well as remnants of the Abu Sayyaf. "They are what we call the hard-hitting force," he said. "They may be few but they are equipped and have received sophisticated training." But in Manila, the militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya wondered why the military had to deploy battalions to go after supposed drug addicts. "Why send 6,000 troops just to chase a band of addicts?" Pamalakaya information chief Gerry Albert Corpuz said in a statement. "Perhaps (Defense) Secretary (Angelo) Reyes and his group of puppet . . . officials in the military are sick and tired of using the Abu Sayyaf issue as an excuse to justify the state's stupid war." Corpuz also said the police, and not the military, should have been assigned the task of hunting down the supposed drug addicts. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek