Until they are finally annihilated, the extremist Abu Sayyaf group will continue to be a threat to tourism, said a retired police officer, yesterday. Ernesto Pacuno, also known as Commander Dragon, who nearly lost his life in an ambush while negotiating for the release of hostages, said: "The Abu Sayyaf is just a name. You take them out, another group of successors will rise because there are many guns and bandits in Jolo. I don't think the army will be able to destroy them."

Pacuno, a retired police colonel, once served in Jolo. He was one of those who negotiated the release of 21 tourists abducted by the bandits in Sipadan Island in Malaysia last year. Pacuno said the government should speed up the implementation of various livelihood programmes in Jolo to discourage other kidnap-for-ransom groups from being formed. Officials familiar with the protracted negotiations that led to the release of most of the hostages last year said the Abu Sayyaf will remain a threat unless impoverished Jolo was developed and it rid itself of its generations-old 'gun culture'.

"The problem is an endless cycle, because they enjoy mastery of the terrain and the villagers protect them," said Pacuno. The Abu Sayyaf took their foreign hostages to Jolo in Mindanao and kidnapped more captives including foreign journalists who were covering the abduction last year. It took four months before the rebels freed some of the hostages, allegedly after ransom money was paid.

On April 12, the Abu Sayyaf's remaining hostage, an American Jeffery Schilling, was rescued by a local policeman and presented to President Gloria Arroyo. The group is still holding captive a Filipino diving instructor, Roland Ullah, one of those abducted in Sipadan.

None of the Abu Sayyaf leaders have been caught even though the government launched a military drive to get them at all costs. In fact, some warn, the group could emerge stronger if unemployed youngsters join them to eke out a living. Without jobs to keep them busy and with guns easily accessible, young men in Jolo would most likely join the Abu Sayyaf rebels, Pacuno predicted.

Officials say the rebels enjoy strong mass support in far-flung Jolo towns where they are revered as modern day Robin Hoods by the poor villagers, a situation that has made tracking them down next to impossible. Marine commander, Col Renato Miranda, acknowledged that winning the support of Jolo's local communities was the key to crushing the Abu Sayyaf. "If we can remove the water, the fish will die," Miranda said, adding that the rebels could be finished off in two months.