Sayyaf takes Sulu teacher as AFP readies jungle base

From The Standard (Mar 12): Sayyaf takes Sulu teacher as AFP readies jungle base

SECURITY forces are tracking down the whereabouts of a public school teacher who was kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu on Friday, a military official said Saturday.

Col. Cirilito Sobejana Jr., Joint Task Force Sulu commander, said Jolo National High School teacher Ibrahim Potong, was driving his motorcycle on the way home to Maimbung town when he was waylaid and taken by the bandits on Friday afternoon.

He said troops have been immediately alerted to locate and rescue the teacher and they are coordinating with the victim’s family “to gather more information about Potong.”

With Potong’s abduction, the number of hostages in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf has increased to 32, including 26 foreigners.

Meanwhile, the Defense department underscored the need to put up a permanent jungle base in the hinterlands of Jolo and Basilan to decimate the Abu Sayyaf and deny space for its future operations.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana conceived of deploying a full division of troops in Jolo to respond to civilian concerns over the threat of the ASG.

“We will also station a permanent commander there in Jolo. Maybe we will transfer one division there in Jolo,” Lorenzana said as he predicted the “strategic defeat” of the ASG by June this year.


Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana
Lorenzana’s plan gained support from a security expert, who said the plan will greatly help in defeating the ASG and foiling their resurgence.

“The idea is to occupy the jungle by highly-trained fighters, establish advance command posts and rear command posts in different strategic locations in the mountain ranges of Jolo which would eventually prevent ASG encampment,” the security expert who requested anonymity said.

He said the troops will stay in the mountains permanently supported with adequate food and ammunition supplies.

“The concept is that military is the predator and not only dependent on sighting-operate strategy against the ASG, but more on jungle base command structure designed to deny future existence of the enemy,” the expert explained.

The jungle base theory will have to be supported by the local community and coordinated with maritime authorities.

So far, the ongoing military offensive has scored 23 dead bandits including four close relatives of key Abu Sayyaf commanders while several others were critically wounded in several engagements in Sulu and Basilan.

Meanwhile, the defense secretary said that the Navy will start its joint patrol with Malaysia and Indonesia in the boundary of the country’s southern backdoor in May or April in order to negate kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf Group.

“We are going to inaugurate that,” he said. “Also, we are going to create a task force in Bongao [Tawi-Tawi] to be headed by a two-star general. We have enough fastboats, some ships and aircraft, and maybe drones. We’re acquiring drones to patrol the area,” Lorenzana added.

http://www.thestandard.com.ph/news/top-stories/231507/sayyaf-takes-sulu-teacher-as-afp-readies-jungle-base.html