Hunt on for militants who beheaded principal

Manila: President Gloria Arroyo formed a military and police task force to pursue Al Qaida-linked militants who beheaded a school principal kidnapped in the southern Philippines on October 19, a senior official said.

The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at a petrol station on the restive southern island of Jolo at dawn, 22 days after he was abducted, but the rest of his body remains missing, local police said.

The Abu Sayyaf had demanded a two-million-peso (Dh154,140) ransom for the release of Canizares, but authorities and his relatives refused to pay.

"The operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are now in full swing. We shall make the abductors and [those responsible for the decapitation] pay for the enormity of this savagery against Mr Gabriel Canizares," deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement.

"The joint operation was also ordered to look for Canizares' missing body," Major David Hontiveros, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, said in a radio interview.

Eyewitnesses claimed seeing two men aboard a motorcycle throwing a plastic bag containing the severed head of Canizares near the Jolo Municipal Hall. This is a few metres away from his residence in San Raymundo village. The incident occurred at 5am yesterday, Hontiveros said.

Clinton trip

The beheading occurred before the scheduled visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on November 12. The Abu Sayyaf group has been retaliating against US assistance to Philippine government soldiers in their operations against the bandits in the south. The Philippine government will support the family of the slain principal.

"President Arroyo appreciates the heroism of schoolteachers who teach Filipino-Muslims in the south," said Anthony Golez, Arroyo's deputy spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the education department cannot set up its own security forces to defend teachers in war-torn Mindanao.

"We have tried to assign locals to teach in the south, but many of them could not pass the test after they were given temporary teaching posts."