Public enemy No. 1

If we are to believe the official reports of the military, last week’s encounter of Marines with lawless elements in the jungles of Sulu involved heavily armed Abu Sayyaf terror bandits. At least seven Marines were killed in action while 26 others were wounded in the military offensive on a large camp of the Abu Sayyaf.

By their intelligence estimation, the military claimed some 30 Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed in that offensive. However, as usual, the enemy group reportedly brought with them their casualties, thus not a single body of an Abu Sayyaf bandit slain in the firefight was recovered.

The battleground reportedly took place amid stormy weather on the slopes of Mount Tunggol and Mount Gasam in Barangay Panglayahan, Patikul at dawn last Thursday. So our brave and gallant Marines had the element of surprise when they launched their attack on the Abu Sayyaf camp.

The sad part of this story was that five of the seven Marines who were killed, including a second lieutenant who was initially reported missing, were found headless and mutilated. Our men also lost several night-vision goggle fighting equipment and high-powered firearms to the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

This is not to denigrate the gallantry and heroism of our Marines who lost their lives in defense against this dreaded bandit group. But weren’t the Abu Sayyaf ranks supposedly decimated already? We’ve been told repeatedly by our top security and military officials that they have diminished the Abu Sayyaf as a threat group after the killing and capture of many of their top leaders and key operatives.

Originally classified as a ragtag kidnap-for-ransom group of criminals operating in Mindanao, the Abu Sayyaf has graduated to become a most feared terrorist organization in the Philippines after they have linked up with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an Indonesia-based Muslim extremist group backed by the al-Qaeda international terror group.

The Abu Sayyaf’s rise to notoriety reached its peak in 2001 in the early days of the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. They abducted 18 foreign and local tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan. They released some of their hostages after ransom negotiations took place although it was never admitted that payments were made. However, one of the American hostages, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded when negotiations fell through.

The longest held hostages were American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham. Martin got killed during the rescue operations, one of the many undertaken by the AFP to save the hostages from the clutches of the Abu Sayyaf. Years later, Gracia came up with a book of her account of the harrowing experiences they had during almost a year of being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf.

Discovery Channel even made a documentary on the ordeal of the Burnhams and their fellow hostages in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf. In that documentary, operatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) admitted their involvement in helping the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the rescue bid for the American hostages.

This latest Marine offensive reportedly took place close to the suspected hideouts of the remaining Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Radullan Sahiron and Isnilon Hapilon. The two are in the US list of the “most wanted” terrorists around the world. Both have price on their heads for their capture dead or alive: $1 million for Sahiron, and $5 million for Hapilon.

The former President made the mistake of uttering big words like “isang bala na lang ang Abu Sayyaf.” But after an initial military offensive success against them, the Abu Sayyaf has apparently regrouped and has become fiercer.

This seeming resurgence of Abu Sayyaf terror activities is a rather worrisome development that the present administration could not ignore. President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was reportedly angered after being briefed about this incident and vowed justice for the slain Marines. As Commander-in-Chief of the AFP, the President vowed swift justice against those behind these barbaric and heinous acts on the fallen Marines.

But what is bothersome in the presidential statement on this incident was P-Noy’s reference to the stalled peace process in Mindanao between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). “I condemn these atrocities that are meant to put pressure on the peace process – to derail our efforts to counteract the causes of banditry, rebellion and terrorism,” P-Noy said.

The last time I checked, the Abu Sayyaf group is classified as nothing but a criminal bandit group out to make big money from kidnappings and other lucrative illegal activities. Thus, the Abu Sayyaf group is, was, and will never be part of the peace process. So P-Noy’s linking this Abu Sayyaf incident to the peace process would unnecessarily elevate this bandit group to a stature they don’t deserve.

This latest Marine offensive that ended tragically was part of the operations to run after the Abu Sayyaf for their latest kidnapping spree. A number of hostages, including two Americans, a Malaysian, an Indian and a Japanese treasure hunter, are believed being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

However, it cannot also be denied there is clearly no distinction between the atrocities that Abu Sayyaf bandits and MILF rebels commit like beheading their victims and the soldiers who they capture. That is as far as reading between the lines on P-Noy’s reference to the peace process that invariably links the Abu Sayyaf with the MILF.

Whatever it is, the government must not fall into the trap of this unholy alliance of the Abu Sayyaf bandits and the renegade ranks of the MILF. Often loosely tagged as “lost commands,” MILF leaders, in the name of the peace process, give them as excuse whenever atrocities occur.

But no more excuses. As far as P-Noy is concerned, he has marked the Abu Sayyaf group as public enemy No. 1 that must be crushed. If not done yesterday, it must come sooner, not later.