ARMED boys, some
no older than 12, guard hostages while entire communities collude to prove a
safe haven for the ruthless Abu Sayyaf bandits, a member of the incoming
administration’s peace panel said Tuesday, citing the experiences of
freed hostage Marites Flor.
Incoming
presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza was instrumental in
obtaining the release of Flor, who was abducted with her Canadian boyfriend
Robert Hall, another Canadian John Ridsdel and a Norwegian, Kjartan
Sekkingstad, in September 2015.
The Abu Sayyaf
beheaded Ridsdel and Hall after the bandits did not get the ransom they
demanded. Sekkingstad is still being held by the bandits.
“Marites said,
‘Sir, there are even children who would guard us with guns, some of them are 12
years old,’” Dureza told GMA News.
“They don’t have
schools there, they don’t have facilities, they’re just poor,” Dureza said,
adding that they were helping the bandits to gain a small share of the ransom
they earn from the hostages.
Even the
community would provide perimeter security for the bandits, making it more
difficult for government security forces to obtain accurate intelligence.
“The members of
the community will even provide them with a security cordon to protect these
hostages and also the hostage takers,” Dureza said.
“Most of the
community members also benefit [from the ransoms paid]…. In other words, it has
been a source of livelihood for the community,” he said.
“They are just in
it for the money. They find this a very lucrative way of earning money,” Dureza
added.
Dureza said to
combat the Abu Sayyaf, the government must maintain a presence in the far-flung
areas that they have neglected or even abandoned.
He said while the
problem required a military solution, the government must also deal with the
environmental factors that have allowed the bandit group to survive despite
sporadic government crackdowns.
“We cannot deal
with this situation just because the people are saying that you should attack
them at once. There is a community around it and you have to address the
reasons why they are also involved in that way,” Dureza said.
“They are
isolated. They are very poor. They don’t have schools there. There is no
government there. They have not felt the presence of government. We should also
address that, not only the terrorists there,” he added.
Dureza declined
to reveal other information provided by Flor as some of them might have
tactical value to the military and the police.
“They should be
isolated from these bad guys. ‘That should be our entry point. While you deal
with an iron fist with the bad guys, you have to deal with the community out
there,” he said.
The Abu Sayyaf released
Flor, a native of Valencia ,
Bukidnon, after months of captivity after she and her companions were snatched
from a resort on Samal
Island
Earlier, Duterte
said the Abu Sayyaf must be clear if it wants to be treated as an enemy, and
said he was open to a dialogue with the group.
“The Abu Sayyaf,
they are not my enemies. I know that is connected with the issue of Mindanao . I would like to clear. Would they? Are they
willing to talk? Or just fight it out?” Duterte told his Cebuano supporters.
Duterte also
vowed a “day of reckoning” for the Abu Sayyaf, after they beheaded two Canadian
hostages when the deadline for their ransom passed.
Duterte said that
they are still negotiating for the release of Sekkingstad.
Dureza said the
government couldn’t simply launch an attack because innocent lives were at
stake.
“We have to talk
to them [Abu Sayyaf] to save lives, but it’s not in the context of peace... The
full force of the law will have to be applied here,” he said.
He added that the
administration cannot take a single approach in dealing with the bandit group
because the situation on the ground is complex.
“The situation is
complicated. You cannot put it in one box,” he said when asked whether the
Duterte administration’s policy regarding the Abu Sayyaf will be negotiation or
launching an offensive.
“It has to be a
calibrated approach,” Dureza added.
But incoming
Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya pledged a “24x7 fight” to neutralize
the Abu Sayyaf.
“We are planning
to fight the ASG 24/7. We would like to defeat the ASG the fastest way,” he
said.
Even as the Abu
Sayyaf released Flor, it abducted seven Indonesian sailors in the Sulu Sea , eight days after Hall was beheaded.
Visaya added that
the Armed Forces has more than enough resources as the military has 11
battalions deployed in Sulu alone hunting these terrorists.
“There will be
some procurement, and there will be realignment of resources also,” he said.
The incoming AFP
chief also said civilian support and cooperation are needed in addressing the
ASG threat.
“We have more
than enough forces to match them but they are very hard to locate on the
ground, so it is essential for civilians to cooperate,” he added.
“In our military
operations, we have to separate the terrorists from the civilian communities in
order to cut off their logistics and contain them in areas conducive for battle
where there would be no civilian collateral [damage]. Once that separation is
done we have to build safety measures to make sure these terrorists don’t have
a chance to return and mingle or blend into the community again for cover,”
Visaya said.
Visaya said the
use of force was still the most viable approach to eliminate an armed threat
such as the Abu Sayyaf.
“For example in
Sulu, we’ve have enough soldiers already deployed there and we don’t have to deploy
more. As of now, up to 11 battalions or roughly 5,500 soldiers are already
there, more than enough against the ASG, which according to the latest report,
has only 500 or 1,000 maybe. All we’ve to do is craft a practical and doable
plan in a comprehensive manner on how to deal with the Abu Sayyaf problem, and
we already have that plan,” he said.
http://thestandard.com.ph/news/-main-stories/top-stories/209394/abu-sayyaf-using-kids-in-crimes.html
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