Abu Sayyaf still liable for criminal acts, says Palace

Manila: Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s refusal to refer to the Abu Sayyaf group (ASG) as “criminals”, the Western Mindanao-based militant group should still be held accountable for their acts, which include beheading of locals and foreigners, said a government spokesperson. Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, during an interview with state-run radio station dzRB, said ASG still has to answer for its actions just like anyone else who commits violations of the law.

The presidential spokesperson said Duterte is not condoning the ASG’s actions, but is just looking at the picture from a bigger perspective, which includes the assumption that the group isn’t made up of bandits, but a group with a political objective.

“I believe that was the context of the statement, he understands where their actions are coming from,” Abella said.

Duterte was the first President in the country to come from Mindanao and during his campaign for the presidential elections, he boasted that no one among the candidates knew the issues on insurgency better than him. He had served for more than two decades as mayor of Davao City and had confronted it first hand.

In a speech on Friday in Davao City to mark Eid Al Fitr, Duterte said the ASG is not much of a criminal issue, as 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.

For years, past governments have regarded ASG a simple peace-and-order violation matter.

Duterte said the group — which was established in the 1990s by hardline Islamic preacher Abubakar Janjalani — was fighting the government out of “desperation.”

Duterte’s speech had been perceived as some as an effort by the President to justify ASG’s actions.

The group has been getting increasingly notorious for its brutality. In recent months it was responsible for the execution of two Canadian mining executives, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. The two are part of a group of four holidaymakers who were abducted in Samal Island in Davao del Norte and taken to Sulu. A Filipina captive, Marites Flor was freed but a Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad, remains in captivity.

But Abella said ASG was fighting the government because of its “failed promises” to them.

The lack of understanding of the group and the causes of its rebellion had led to the failure of finding solutions to this particular separatist concern.

Despite continuing deployment of thousands of troops in Sulu and Basilan, the conflict with ASG persists.

“The Abu Sayyaf are not just ordinary bandits, they have a motive. Nevertheless, they still have to be answerable for their actions,” Abella concluded.