Philippines leader orders end to Abu Sayyaf, extremism

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered soldiers to destroy a Daesh-affiliated militant group that for years has spread terror in the Philippines south, saying the government must be able to crush extremism.

Describing the Abu Sayyaf as "terrorists and bandits who kill civilians for no apparent reason", Duterte ruled out negotiations and said action was necessary now, or, he said, the Philippines risked being "contaminated by the ISIS [Daesh] disease".

"Destroy them, that's an order," ABS-CBN broadcaster quoted the president as telling soldiers Wednesday at an army base in the majority Christian province of Zamboanga del Sur.

Duterte's order comes after the National Police chief Ronald de la Rosa said that a top drug trafficker had teamed up with armed groups that had pledged allegiance to Daesh in order to kill him and the president.

Earlier this month, the president gave more than 150 officials suspected of links to illegal drugs 24 hours to surrender or be shot on sight as part of his war on drugs.

Duterte told those gathered at the southern base Wednesday that the Philippines should be ready to confront the threat brought by Daesh, as its extremist ideology could become a problem.

''There is something wrong in their minds, killing people unnecessarily without question. They burn people to death for apparently no reason at all," he underlined.

Duterte said that if action was not taken soon he could see groups such as Daesh infiltrating the south in the next three-seven years, but warned that he already thought that the radicalization had started.

"In some parts of Mindanao, there are [already] white people," he said, adding that he thought they were "Arabs".

"They are here as missionaries. They don't have arms. But they are into [indoctrination]. That's what we should be scared of. Just like the communists... that's alarming because they are conditioning the minds."

Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf group -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.

It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.

The Abu Sayyaf is one of two militant groups in the south that has pledged allegiance to Daesh, prompting fears during the stalling of a peace process with the country's largest Moro group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that Daesh, that they could make inroads in a region torn by decades of armed conflict.