Arroyo hails former US hostage for her testimony against Abu Sayyaf

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Friday expressed the gratitude to former Abu Sayyaf's hostage, American missionary Gracia Burnham, for her testimony against her suspected former captors.

The president said in a statement that she admired Gracia Burnham's courage and faith and her determination to bring terrorists to justice.

"The trial of the Abu Sayyaf who abducted her and her husband is living proof of our determined fight against terror in partnership with all nations and peoples," Arroyo said.

"Her testimony also upholds the integrity and uncommon valor of our Armed Forces, and I thank her for her concern for our people's peace and security," she added.

Burnham Thursday identified in a special court six arrested AbuSayyaf bandits as the persons who held her and her husband Martin for more than one year in the southern islands of Mindanao since they were kidnapped from the Dos Palmas island resort in Palawan province on May 27, 2001.

Martin was killed along with Filipina nurse Edibora Yap in a military rescue operation on June 7, 2002.

The 45-year-old mother of three also testified that she had witnessed no collusion between the military and the Abu Sayyaf in collecting millions of dollars in ransom for her fellow hostages.

The testimony was against the allegations included in her book -- "In the Presence of My Enemies," saying that an unnamed Filipino general tried to keep half of the money raised for a possible ransom and that soldiers delivered food and sold weapons to the guerrillas.

Romeo Dominguez, commander of the military's Northern Luzon Command who was rumored to have harbored ties with the Abu Sayyaf, said that he expected such statements from Burnham during a court hearing.

Dominguez was then the head of the military elements which supervised rescue operations when the bandits brought Burnham and 19 other hostages from Dos Palmas resort in Palawan to Basilan.

A report by the Army's Inspection General, which looked into the incident, did not found any angle of collusion either.

Burnham, from Wichita, Kansas, was invited to testify under a mutual legal assistance treaty between Washington and Manila to the trial, which is part of the Philippines' effort to impose justice on suspected militants from the Abu Sayyaf group accused of mass kidnappings, bombings and beheadings.

Source: Xinhua