One step back

How many one-armed commanders does the Abu Sayyaf have? There must be only one “Commander Putol” or “one-armed bandit” in the terrorist group – Radulan Sahiron – and he was the one that ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon was supposed to interview in Sulu.

For an operation to collect ransom of up to P30 million, the top commanders are usually the ones involved. There are only two remaining top Abu Sayyaf old-timers with the requisite notoriety for this type of operation: Sahiron and Isnilon Hapilon.

And if there is only one Radulan Sahiron, he must have been the one described by Ces, in her interview with our Lifestyle writer Tanya Lara late last week, as the leader of the group that held her and her companions hostage for 10 days in the jungles of Sulu.

Ces related that the kidnappers’ leader, who was known to the hostages only by an alias, tried to hide the fact that he had a missing arm.

Ces was accompanied to the jungle by Mindanao State University-Sulu professor Octavio Dinampo, who reportedly interviewed Sahiron earlier this year and could therefore recognize him.

Did Dinampo fail to recognize a disguised Sahiron, or is there another one-armed Abu Sayyaf commander roaming the jungles of Sulu?

Curiously, while Ces went into great (and at times comical) detail about the suffering she and her cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama underwent in captivity, she made no mention at all of how Dinampo fared in all those days as a hostage.

Dinampo was initially reported to have been freed immediately, raising suspicion that he was involved in the kidnapping. He was also questioned by the police following the release of all the captives last week, but he was not detained or indicted for any offense.

His supporters have pointed out that Dinampo is active in the peace effort in Mindanao, so maybe he is a victim of unfair speculation in this land where meanness is becoming a national trait.

But reading Ces’ account, it looks like the purported interview had been a set-up from the start.

In her first interview after emerging from the jungle, she disclosed that she and her team appeared to have been “betrayed” – by whom, she did not say.

The poor people of Sulu will suffer the fallout from this latest hostage incident. Only competent, dedicated and honest governance, specifically at the local level, can lift the province from poverty. But what happens when town mayors and their sons are themselves implicated in kidnapping for ransom?

Optimists describe the setback as a case of two steps forward, one step back. But the last time Sulu suffered its one step back – when the Abu Sayyaf held for ransom mostly foreign hostages snatched from Malaysia’s Sipadan island – the involvement of a prominent Sulu executive and a government negotiator was never officially established.

This time Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son Haider have been formally indicted, with the Philippine National Police (PNP) promising to produce more incriminating evidence today.

Who will want to visit or invest money in a province where the public official welcoming you with a handshake and a buss on both cheeks is plotting your kidnapping for ransom?

On the other hand, this can be projected as a good sign that Sulu is headed for a major cleansing and is on its way to better governance.

Much will depend on whether those behind the kidnapping of Ces and her crew will be caught and punished.

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The other target of ugly speculation arising from the kidnapping is Sen. Loren Legarda, who belatedly came into the picture and then, in vintage Loren, tried to hog the limelight following the release. It was hard to find photos where Loren didn’t look glued to Ces – or maybe that was part of a deal, the better for Ces, in her unmade-up (though no less attractive) state, to hide her huge insect bites from the cruel medium of TV.

This should teach Loren a lesson on the merits of keeping self-glorification to a minimum, especially in a case where her initial boast about an “unconditional release” resulting from “firm negotiations” is increasingly being shown up to be a big, fat lie.

As of yesterday, with the PNP announcing that more ransom money was delivered in two duffel bags in Sulu after Angelo Valderama was freed for P5 million, the story going around was that Loren herself had nagged ABS-CBN to pay P15 million. About P10 million was reportedly traced to the Isnajis; no one knows what happened to the P5 million. Loren is sure to deny this and blame the nasty talk on her political rivals. But after the “unconditional” release turned out to have cost at least P5 million, she should start distancing herself from this mess.

With just two years to 2010, and with President Arroyo plumbing new depths in performance ratings at every quarterly survey, Loren should dispel perceptions that apart from the same gender, she has something else in common with the President: ease in lying. In dealing with so-called friends, Loren should also remember that oft-repeated admonition that those who lie down with dogs end up with fleas.

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If the Isnajis are truly involved and are punished for it, the people of Sulu and even neighboring Basilan may finally realize that there must a better way to make a living apart from ransom kidnapping.

Let’s hope they don’t turn to that other way of making big bucks quickly in this country: through fat commissions on government projects.

People who do not pay taxes and have no personal stake in government often do not mind if their elected officials are involved in organized crime, as long as they can share in the profits. This is how patronage politics has thrived in this country.

But there must be other local executives in Sulu who can tell residents that after they have spent their share in ransom money, lawlessness can only mean more poverty and underdevelopment.

Sulu cannot wait too long for its two steps forward.