News Update Sulu captive's identity confuses authorities

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Authorities are now confused if the man held hostage by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits on one of the islands in Sulu since last Friday is actually a Maranaw and not Japanese as he was reported to be.

Lt. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, chief of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command, said some documents found in the captive’s house in Barangay Bangkilay, Pangutaran town, were under the name of Amer Katayama Mamaito.

The documents showed that Mamaito has been in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur since 2003, with a birth certificate indicating that he hails from the province, he said.

“The kidnappers might be holding a Maranaw,” he added.

But other documents such as a passport carry the name of a certain Toshio Ito, 63, born on June 18, 1947 in Hiroshima, Japan.

Dolorfino said the different identities have led them to suspect that the captive has assumed other names to cover up his alleged nefarious activities.

The man was also found to have acquired a driver’s license under Mamaito’s name and was supposedly an auxiliary with a rank of lieutenant senior grade, he said.

Dolorfino cited other documents showing that the captive was a “fake doctor and involved in swindling.”

The man was also found to have an identification card of the Moro National Liberation Front indicating that he serves as a medic of the group.

Despite the confusion over the captive’s identity, Dolorfino said ground forces and the police would continue in their search and rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, government security forces foiled a plot to kidnap a foreign national by a group with links to the Abu Sayyaf during an encounter on Sacol Island east of Zamboanga City Monday.

Senior Superintendent Francisco Cristobal, deputy commander of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation for Western Mindanao, said three members of the kidnapping gang escaped while a fourth one, a certain Jun Akilan, was killed in the firefight in the coastal village of Pasilmanta.

Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, chief of Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said the offensive was launched after a joint police-military intelligence team learned about the kidnapping plot.

Pama declined to identify the supposed target of the kidnapping, although he said the foreigner has been warned and told to take security precautions. - By Roel Pareño