Arroyo declares total war vs crime in Mindanao

She burned P60 million worth of uprooted marijuana and announced the "neutralization" of the leader of a notorious kidnapping group.

President Arroyo brought her call for a "strong Republic" to Min-danao yesterday, declaring "total war" against criminals and terrorists in the southern Philippines.

"As I have been saying, there can be no development without peace," Mrs. Arroyo told Saranggani residents in a ceremony celebrating the province’s 33rd founding anniversary. "I have ordered the police and the military to wage a full offensive against terrorism and crime."

In her second State of the Nation Address, Mrs. Arroyo had described terrorists and criminals as "enemies of the State," saying lawlessness — particularly kidnapping, illegal drugs and terrorism — were threatening national security.

"Our offensive formula against the enemies of our state would hopefully bring back peace and order in Mindanao and attain the much-desired progress in the south," she said in Saranggani.

She announced that the leader of a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang had been killed by police in Sultan Kudarat, touting it as her government’s initial victory in the war against the kidnapping scourge.

Abu Sofia gang leader Tungku Abdul Rahman, also known as Commander Tropical, and a henchman were killed by police who raided Rahman’s hideout in Isulan town on Thursday.

Saranggani police chief Superintendent Willie Dangane, who led the raid, said Rahman was gunned down when he tried to shoot it out with the lawmen.

In General Santos City, Mrs. Arroyo led officials in burning bales of marijuana plants seized the other day by authorities from a 60-hectare plantation in a remote Saranggani village.

Rahman’s gang was responsible for the kidnapping of a South Korean businessman and a local hotelier in February.

The Abu Sofia and the Pentagon gang are among the 21 most notorious kidnap rings that are being targetted by the government.

Although rich in natural resources, Mindanao is the Philippines’ most impoverished region and has suffered from decades of Muslim insurgency.

In 1996, the Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace deal with the government, ending more than two decades of fighting that left hundreds of thousands of civilians dead.

The government is currently holding peace talks with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a smaller rebel group that broke off from the MNLF in the 1970s.

On the island of Basilan, thousands of troops are hunting down the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf, a much smaller but much more violent Islamic extremist group that had kidnapped dozens of foreigners in the past for ransom.

Said to have ties with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network, the Abu Sayyaf is the target of a joint Philippine-US military operations.

Barred from engaging in combat, 1,000 US troops have been training Philippine forces on counter-terrorism tactics since February as part of the US global war on terrorism.

Washington also helped Philippine forces in the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf by providing intelligence gathered by spy satellites and planes.

Last week, a US grand jury indicted five Abu Sayyaf leaders – although none are in custody – for abducting three Americans early last year from a Palawan resort.

Missionary Martin Burnham and his wife Gracia were abducted on May 27, 2001, a day after they arrived at a beach resort to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary.

The bandits also grabbed another American and 17 Filipinos. They later beheaded the third American, Guillermo Sobero, of California, and some of the Filipinos. Others were freed for ransom.

Martin Burnham was killed last month when Philippine troops mounted a rescue attempt in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte.

His wife, Gracia, survived with a bullet wound in her thigh. A Filipina nurse held hostage, Edibora Yap, was also killed in the rescue attempt.