Manila - Six relatives of Muslim militants who abducted three Red Cross workers in the southern Philippines were arrested for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and other attacks by the rebels, a marine spokesman said Thursday. Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said authorities were looking into the possibility that the arrested relatives were involved in the bombing outside a Catholic church in Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on Tuesday.
Two people were killed and more than 30 injured in the attack.
Arevalo said the arrested relatives included two wives of Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel commander Albader Parad, who led the kidnapping of three Red Cross workers on January 15.
Only one Red Cross worker - Italian Eugenio Vagni - remains in captivity. His colleagues - Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba - were freed separately in April.
Arevalo said Parad's wives and their four companions were arrested on Tuesday, hours after the bombing in Jolo town, as their motorcycles passed by a marine checkpoint in Tagbak village in Indanan town.
He identified Parad's wives as Rowena "Honey" Aksan and Nursima "Simang" Annudden. The other arrested suspects were Aksan's brother, two wives and a brother of Abu Sayyaf bomb experts.
"All the persons arrested are suspected to provide logistical and service support in terms of vehicle, purchase and delivery of food and similar commodities to their bandit Abu Sayyaf cohorts," Arevalo said.
He added that there was reason to suspect that a mobile phone seized from the group "could be part of the triggering mechanism that set off the bomb that was placed in the motorcycle that exploded" near the church on Tuesday.
The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf is the smallest but most violent Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. It has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines as well as high-profile kidnappings involving foreign hostages.
