03 May 2016•Update: 08 May 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
Philippines President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to devote all his energy to “crushing” Daesh-linked militants in the country’s troubled south, after the beheading of a Canadian hostage and the release of 10 Indonesians, local media reported Tuesday.
“The Abu Sayyaf has been causing too much damage for a very long time now and they are really horrendous... this problem must be curbed,” The Philippine Star quoted him as saying.
On Monday, the Abu Sayyaf freed 10 Indonesians who were abducted in late March from a tugboat off the majority Muslim island province of Tawi-Tawi, which lies between the southern Philippines and Malaysia.
Their release came six days after the Abu Sayyaf beheaded a Canadian hostage, 68-year-old John Ridsdel, after a 300-million pesos ($6 million) ransom failed to be paid.
Aquino told reporters Monday that his administration would continue its all-out offensive against the group and would be relentless in its cooperation with security forces.
“I just want to reiterate that we in this administration talk to everyone who wants to have a dialogue with us,” he said.
“Those who only understand force or violence must also be shown force and ruthlessness of the state, but I am confident that our security sector is not relenting, the military and the police, to end this Abu Sayyaf problem."
The Philippines and Indonesia have reiterated that their governments did not pay a 50 million peso ($1 million) ransom demanded for the 10 sailors’ release, but refused to comment on whether their employer had contributed to the demanded sum.
The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.
The group is believed to still be holding more than a dozen captives including four Malaysians kidnapped off the coast of Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state in early April.
Other hostages include a Canadian, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman seized alongside Ridsdel in September, a Dutch national kidnapped more than three years ago in Tawi-Tawi, a Chinese national and six other Filipinos.
Aquino’s term is set to end July 1, without the passage of a proposed autonomy law on the country’s south -- Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) -- that would have sealed a peace process aimed at bringing an end to a decades-old conflict.
The country’s one-time largest ethnic Moro rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, had warned that failure to pass the law could lead to frustration among the indigenous people and Daesh-linked groups gaining influence.
BBL would have created a new region to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and bring much needed wealth to a region that is rich in resources but among the country’s most underdeveloped.
The legislation, however, was stalled as Congress adjourned for election campaigning.
