Two suspected Abu Sayyaf Group members were killed while three others arrested in a clash between the military and the bandits on early Wednesday in Santa Cruz town, Davao del Sur province, southern Philippines.
The five, from General Santos city, were allegedly on a mission to attack the nearby city of Davao at the time when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on her scheduled visit to the city, the ABS-CBN on-line news quoted initial reports as saying.
Firefight burst out after combined force of the Philippine Army and the police was informed of the presence of armed men suspected to be members of Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Muslim extremist group in the area.
Authorities recovered ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, and detonating cords from the suspects who still defended themselves, claiming to be civilians.
Security measures tightened in Davao which is expecting President Arroyo. She is to lead local Labor Day celebrations, with a speech and dialogue with local labor groups at a local university.
Denying any hand to the bomb blasts in General Santos city in the south early last month, the MILF had agreed last week to work with the government in pursuit of the perpetrators of the bombings.
(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2002)
