EDITORIAL - One year and counting

This crisis was supposed to have been over a long time ago. Last year the President and commmander-in-chief had given her troops a succession of orders to "crush" and "annihilate" the Abu Sayyaf after the group staged a daring raid on the upscale Dos Palmas resort in Palawan. Military commanders in charge of security in Palawan, Basilan and neighboring areas have been sacked, replaced, reshuffled.

For good measure, American troops were called in, ostensibly to train Philippine soldiers in anti-terrorist operations. Rumors have been flying since the start of the year about an imminent rescue of the three remaining Abu Sayyaf hostages, American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipina nurse Deborah Yap. There’s a new Southcom commander, and he said he was giving priority to ending the hostage crisis.

Monday came and went, however, with the hostages still in the hands of the ruthless band led by Aldam Tilao and Khadaffy Janjalani in the jungles of Basilan. Tilao, better known as Abu Sabaya, is still issuing statements to the broadcast media – an indication that the military is no closer to rescuing the hostages and neutralizing the Abu Sayyaf than it was several months ago. On May 27 last year, the terrorists had grabbed 17 Filipino guests and workers and three Americans from Dos Palmas. Three of the hostages mysteriously escaped during a military siege on a hospital compound in Basilan. One by one, several of the other hostages were freed amid reports of multimillion-peso ransom payments. On June 12 one of the Americans was beheaded.

As the hostage crisis entered its second year, President Arroyo reiterated the government’s policy against paying ransom. She also emphasized that she had set no deadline for ending the crisis. Unconfirmed reports said the Burnhams’ relatives in the United States, who are understandably feeling desperate, had paid ransom but the terrorists had reneged on their part of the deal.

The Burnhams are not the only ones wondering when this crisis is going to end. Filipinos see no imminent resolution of this crisis. The "Balikatan" war games between Philippine and US troops, which raised public expectations about the hostages’ rescue and the destruction of the Abu Sayyaf, will soon be over. Abu Sayyaf commanders have often bragged that their group, which started sowing terror nearly a decade ago, has survived two administrations and may outlive the current one. At the rate the government campaign against the Abu Sayyaf is going, its commanders may not be far off the mark.