The
recent abductions of three Westerners and a Filipino woman from a southern
Philippine resort are the latest reminder of the long-running security problems
that have hounded a region with bountiful resources and promises, but hamstrung
by stark poverty and an array of insurgents and outlaws.
The recent abductions of three Westerners and a
Filipino woman from a southern Philippine resort are the latest reminder of the
long-running security problems that have hounded a region with bountiful
resources and promises, but hamstrung by stark poverty and an array of
insurgents and outlaws.
While authorities have not identified the abductors
with certainty, there is one usual suspect: the Abu Sayyaf group, a brutal
al-Qaeda-linked organization that has pulled off mass kidnappings for ransom in
the last 15 years in the south and in neighboring Malaysia."The primary
suspect is ASG," regional military commander Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad told
reporters Thursday. He added, however, that there have been no conclusive
findings on the kidnappers' identities.
Under cover of darkness, at least 11 men armed with
two rifles and pistols barged into the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort on
southern Samal Island shortly before midnight on Sunday and then headed toward yachts
docked at a marina, according to the military and police.In less than 20
minutes, the kidnappers herded at gunpoint Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert
Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, the resort's marina manager, and Filipino
Teresita Flor, to two motor boats.
An American and his Japanese female companion fought
back and were injured, but escaped by jumping off their yacht, said Senior
Superintendent Samuel Gadingan, the police chief of Davao del Norte province,
where Samal is located, about 1,000 kilometers southeast of the capital,
Manila.Aside from the Abu Sayyaf, investigators have considered the possible
involvement of a small extortion gang of former Muslim and communist
guerrillas, who have an active presence in the vast Davao region. The latter,
however, have in the past publicly declared their abductions, mostly of
government troops, within days of seizing them, according to Gadingan.
It remains uncertain which group is behind the latest
abduction, but the conditions that foster such crimes are much clearer: a
volatile mix of poverty, weak law enforcement and access to thousands of
unlicensed firearms in the south, said Julkipli Wadi, dean of the Institute for
Islamic Studies at the state-run University of the Philippines.
It's very likely too that those deep-seated social
ills would not be solved anytime soon and kidnappings will continue, he
said."These are generational problems that are difficult to be solved by
presidents who are restricted to six-year terms and often lack political will,"
Wadi said.Kidnappings for ransom have preceded the Abu Sayyaf. But the group
started an alarming trend of large-scale abductions after it emerged in the
early 2000 as an offshoot of the decades-long separatist rebellion by minority
Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south.
The Abu Sayyaf abducted 21 people, mostly European
tourists, from a Malaysian diving resort in 2000, freeing them later,
reportedly in exchange for huge ransoms. The militants took three Americans and
17 Filipinos the following year from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province
southwest of Manila, then staged a failed kidnapping attempt at a popular
resort on Samal Island, near where Sunday's abductions occurred.
Without any known foreign financial support and after
more than a decade of battle setbacks inflicted by US-backed Philippine
military offensives, the Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly through kidnappings and
extortion. In recent years, they have grown more daring by crossing the sea
border to snatch victims in Malaysia's Sabah state.The US military's
antiterrorism task force in the southern Philippines was deactivated in
February after 13 years, as Washington recently shifted focus to supporting
freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. US forces continue to provide
intelligence and training to Filipino troops in the south.
The rewards for Abu Sayyaf kidnappers have been
relatively huge. Aside from the money, kidnap victims have been used as human
shields to pre-empt government offensives. High-profile abductions also have
allowed the militants to capture the attention of foreign terrorist networks, a
confidential government security assessment report said.
Last year, the militants were estimated to have
pocketed more than 277 million pesos (US$6 million) in ransom from the
kidnappings of 59 people, said the report, a copy of which was obtained by The
Associated Press."Kidnapping has indeed become a lucrative industry in
Mindanao," the report said, referring to the southern region. It added,
without elaborating, that unidentified corrupt politicians and even law
enforcers have benefited from the crime.
Buddy Recio, a Filipino travel writer who was abducted
by Abu Sayyaf militants with his wife and son at the Palawan resort in 2001,
said it pains him to know that the militants have endured and continue to seize
innocent people, who have to go through the same harrowing ordeal that they
endured.
Recio's son was freed and he and his wife were wounded
in crossfire, prompting the Abu Sayyaf militants to leave them after a week of
captivity. If the new kidnap victims could hear him, Recio said he would advise
them to stay fit to endure the extremely rough time ahead and to look forward
to a brighter ending."They should keep on hoping," Recio said.
"They should think that there are governments and friends working to set
them free." - Jim Gomez, Associated Press, Manila
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