Interior Secretary Mar Roxas: Who funded Misuari attack?. PHOTO BY RICHARD A. REYES/INQUIRER
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Was the Zamboanga attack funded by someone implicated in the pork barrel scam?
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said Tuesday the government would look into this angle in its investigation into the incident as officials have been hearing this same information.
“We have heard such stories. Maybe in the investigation we will conduct into this incident, we will look into that,” Roxas said in Filipino.
But the main concern of security officials and government troops is the rescue of the remaining hostages, Roxas said.
He said there had been reports that huge amounts of money were given to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commanders.
P10K, ATM card, gun
However, some of the captured MNLF fighters said they were made to “pay P3,500 each in exchange for an Armalite and an ATM card with P10,000,” Roxas said.
As the security forces tried to end the two-week-old Zamboanga crisis, a breakaway faction of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked Midsayap, North Cotabato, early Tuesday.
“We cannot say,” Roxas said when asked if the Midsayap attack was related to the Zamboanga incident.
The attack could be “opportunistic” because it was carried out by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), he said.
Civilians decapitated
The military said two of the civilian fatalities were decapitated.
They were identified as Ricardo Dionio, whose head was recovered in Dimapulot, Malinao, with a gunshot wound, and Erwin Badao Viloan, whose head was found in Sitio (settlement) Babonao in Barangay (village) Agriculture.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the nine remaining hostages (from the 13 people originally taken hostage) had been released and brought to the hospital for a medical checkup.