May 10, 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 81 soldiers killed; 468 others wounded, by Carlito Pablo,

May 10, 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 81 soldiers killed; 468 others wounded, by Carlito Pablo,

AT least 81 government troops have been killed and 468 others wounded in action since fighting erupted two weeks ago in Mindanao's hot spots, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said yesterday. 

Twenty-one other Marines and Army Scout Rangers remain missing and the military believe they have been ''felled by enemy fire,'' Mercado told a news conference. 

He declined to give estimates of the casualties on the side of the rebel groups that government forces have been fighting, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the extremist Abu Sayyaf. He theorized that the MILF suffered ''at least three times'' the casualties of the government. 

Previous pronouncements by government authorities said the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan has lost 80 percent of its strength when the military on April 22 launched its offensive to rescue 31 hostages kidnapped by the rebel group in Sumisip town on March 20. 

The military estimates the MILF to have a strength of 8,000 and the Abu Sayyaf only 500. The Agence France Presse wire service attributed 15,000 members to the MILF. 

The military later threw a security cordon around a second Abu Sayyaf unit which had seized 21 mostly foreign hostages from a Malaysian dive resort and brought the captives by sea to the southern Philippine island of Jolo. --Carlito Pablo; AFP