Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo labelled yesterday Abu Sayyaf the only major thorn in Mindanao for her government. She emphasised that her administration is bent on wiping out the fundamentalist group.

Arroyo was speaking at a round-table interview with members of the foreign media at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, on the second day of her three-day state visit to the Lion City. Meanwhile, a member of the Congressional team investigating the alleged collusion between the military and the Abu Sayyaf yesterday branded as the 'height of stupidity' a reported order on June 2 of a complete pullout of soldiers from Lamitan, Basilan, where rebels were holed up with their hostages.

"It was a strange decision from a ground commander in such a situation," said Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a military general and former Armed Forces chief of staff. He was reacting to testimony by witnesses that soldiers guarding the back of the hospital were deliberately ordered to withdraw.

Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr., formerly a newspaper publisher, said there was "gross misconduct" on the part of the military that resulted in the escape of the bandits and the death of soldiers.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, commander of the Army Eighth Infantry Division and the joint Task Force Comet during the Abu Sayyaf raid on a church compound in Lamitan on June 2, denied charges that he had helped rebels slip through a military dragnet in exchange for money.

Dominguez described as "untrue" and "complete falsehood" allegations by Catholic priest Cirilo Nacorda that government troops colluded with the Abu Sayyaf. President Arroyo said the Abu Sayyaf, a splinter group of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is now the biggest hindrance to socio-economic and political reforms aimed at Mindanao, since her government has already concluded a ceasefire agreement with the MILF.

"We have an agreement and are using it to bring development to the former conflict areas," Arroyo said. "What we're left with is the 'terrorist' group in Basilan, and the way to address them is to wipe them out, to rescue the hostages, and to neutralise them completely," she added.

Arroyo said the Philippines government does not regard the Abu Sayyaf as a secessionist group, like the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front. While Dominquez has denied such accusations of army-Abu Sayyaf collusion, he could not tell an investigating congressional team who ordered the pull out of government troops in Lamitan.

Dominguez made the statement in response to a question during the inquiry conducted in Lamitan. "I don't know," he said. " I do not believe anyone would give such an order. If a brigade commander gave that order, I will be responsible. But I don't think a brigade commander under me would do that."

Dominguez maintained that the troops merely "repositioned" themselves to avoid the "friendly fire" coming from a helicopter gunship that he earlier ordered to attack the compound where the bandits were hiding with their hostages.

Earlier, Dominguez admitted that he called for a command post meeting at about the same time government troops reportedly left the hospital compound where the rebels were holed up with their hostages.

The inquiry was part of ongoing fact-finding by the House committee on national defence that is looking into allegations by Father Nacorda that the military and the Abu Sayyaf connived to allow the rebels to escape.

Civilian witnesses testified that when the soldiers left, the rebels, together with their hostages, "casually walked away" using the back-door of the hospital as their escape route. Meanwhile, a $196,078 ransom was allegedly paid on Friday for the release of three women kidnapped in Pampanga, Central Luzon.

Police refused to disclose details of the payoff at the undisclosed pick up point. The victims were identified as Rachelle Laus Ayala, 30, a businesswoman from Quezon City; Rosa Ramirez, who owns a recruitment agency in Italy and resides in San Juan; and Myrna Galang, an applicant at the recruitment agency.

Camp Crame reports said the women were on their way to meet a sales counsellor when the kidnappers struck on August 22. The counsellor later received a phone call informing her of the abduction. A short while later one of the victims, Galang, called the counsellor to confirm they had been kidnapped. Galang said she had been able to hide Ayala's cellular phone which she was using to describe their whereabouts as somewhere where Mount Arayat was visible.