Rebel Leader Offers to Surrender

The commander of a rebel group that has held an American hostage for more than three months in the southern Philippines is offering to surrender if the government guarantees his safety and allows him to answer kidnapping charges in Manila, his attorney said Wednesday.

“He’s convinced he can prove his innocence,” attorney Oliver Lozano said of his client, Ghalib Andang of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, who is known as Commander Robot.

“And if he’s given due process, I’m hopeful other members of Abu Sayyaf might follow suit in surrendering. This could help diminish the tensions in the southern Philippines,” Lozano said.

Lozano said the surrender offer was not related to the army’s offensive against Muslim rebels on Jolo Island, 600 miles south of Manila, the capital. The government says 214 rebels have been killed and 400 have surrendered--more than half of the guerrillas’ main force.

The American, Jeffrey Schilling, 24, a Muslim convert from Oakland, was captured Aug. 28 when he visited the rebel camp with his new wife, Ivi Osani, 22, the cousin of a senior commander in the Abu Sayyaf movement.

Although the government dismisses Abu Sayyaf as professional criminals with no serious ideological agenda, Schilling was known to have been sympathetic to the group’s demands for an independent Muslim state. A Libyan official said Schilling had visited the camp often before his capture, and Philippine intelligence sources said he had an interest in selling the rebels military equipment.

“I can tell you he was not a regular tourist in Jolo,” Philippine Defense Minister Orlando Mercado said in an interview. “His connections with Abu Sayyaf are murky.”

However, Mercado added, “I don’t want to make any accusations without interviewing him, and it wouldn’t be fair to him at this point to publicly raise suspicions.”

Schilling’s mother, Carol Schilling, also of Oakland, appealed to Abu Sayyaf on Monday to release her son in the spirit of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. She said in a prepared statement: “Keeping Jeffrey will not accomplish anything for your movement. Jeffrey is not your enemy, nor am I.”

Abu Sayyaf, which received millions of dollars in ransom for the release of at least 50 people--many of them foreigners--it kidnapped between April and August, demanded $10 million for Schilling’s freedom. The U.S. government ignored the demand, other than to say it does not pay ransom.

Although the army continues to attack Abu Sayyaf force in the jungles of Jolo, President Joseph Estrada has declared a unilateral Christmas cease-fire with a larger and more mainstream Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF.

The army has been fighting the MILF for years. In September, it launched a successful offensive to destroy MILF base camps.

Peace talks with the front broke down earlier this year. In an effort to restart negotiations, Estrada offered to meet a rebel demand to hold discussions in a third country. The MILF rejected the offer, apparently believing it could get a better deal if Estrada is removed from office in his impeachment trial that is set to begin today in Manila.