Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte has issued renewed orders to crush the Abu Sayyaf on the back of reports that an 18-year-old student was executed by the militant group after the latter’s family failed to pay ransom.
“My orders to the police and armed forces against enemies of the state: seek them out in their lairs and destroy them ... The Abu Sayyaf, destroy them, period,” government reports quoted an angered Duterte as saying in an early morning press briefing in Davao City.
On Wednesday, Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command Spokesman, Maj. Filemon Tan said that Patrick Jhames Almodovar was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf after his family was unable to pay for the P1 million (Dh78,945) ransom demanded. His severed head was found inside a plastic bag at the side of the road in Indanan town on Wednesday evening.
'Don't test my patience'
Almodovar was abducted by the so-called “Ajang-Ajang” group last July 18 in Asturias village in the provincial capital, Jolo in Sulu. The captive had apparently been turned over to Abu Sayyaf.
Duterte said Abu Sayyaf’s barbarity and impudence is testing his patience.
This is a turnaround from his past statements.
In a speech he gave last July during Eid Al Fitr, Duterte said the matter concerning the terror group is not much as a criminality issue, as the past governments had regarded it — but a political and social concern.
“I’m not including the Abu Sayyaf in the list of concerns on criminality. You’ve never heard me say they are criminals,” he had said at that time.
But the Abu Sayyaf’s actions, including kidnapping and executions, have apparently made him change his mind.
“I have already lost whatever iota of sympathy in what you are fighting for. Although I am not a Tausug (indigenous people of Sulu to which most of the Abu Sayyaf belong to), I used to have a little compassion to what you are fighting for. With what you have been doing, I have already lost any hope,” he said.
Ransom paid
Duterte also said that ransom for an earlier kidnapping victim, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad had already been paid, but the Abu Sayyaf is yet to make good of its promise to release the hostage.
Sekkingstad was snatched along with two Canadians and a Filipina from a resort in Samal Island, Davao del Norte in September 21, 2015.
The two Canadians have already been executed while the Filipina was released several weeks ago.
Duterte said friends and supporters of Sekkingstad had been able to raise P50 million (Dh394,724) as ransom, but the Norwegian has yet to be released by Abu Sayyaf.
'They want more money'
“They kept postponing the release because they want more money,” he said. “The ransom for the Norwegian has already been paid,” he said.
Duterte said he will be more brutal and has already ordered the deployment of additional troops to Sulu as a result of the recent developments.
On Wednesday, the Army’s 10th Infantry Division withdrew troops from the 69th Infantry Battalion — which operates in Davao Peninsula — for deployment to Sulu.
Capt. Rhyan Batchar, spokesman of the 10 Infantry Division said 1,000 troops will be fielded to Sulu in addition to the 5,000 already in the island.
